A Pilgrimage to Pere Lachaise

I don't intend for either this blog or my sojourn in Paris to be about traditional tourism. But a trek to Pere Lachaise Cemetery isn't an act of tourism; for a gay man, it's a pilgrimage, for that is where you can see the tombs of Oscar Wilde ...


... Gertrude Stein ...


... and Alice B. Toklas (whose name appears on the reverse side of Stein's tombstone) ...


Over the years, people have evolved interesting rituals with respect to these graves. Wilde's tomb is covered in lipstick kisses ...


... which seems to me to be a bit misplaced; Wilde's legacy in gay culture is its fondness for satirical, cutting wit, not for female impersonation.

Stein and Toklas's tombstone is covered in pebbles, in the Jewish tradition, but also, for whatever reason, in New York City Metrocards. I have no idea why, since Stein and Toklas were both Californians (Stein is the one who famously quipped of Oakland, Calif., "There is no there there").

Pere Lachaise is also home to the graves of Jim Morrison, Sarah Bernhardt, Frederic Chopin, and any number of famous Frenchmen. But even the ordinary graves sometimes have stories to tell, as does this one:


Let's see: World champion men's hairdresser, died in 1980 at age 30. Some things just make you go "hmm ... "