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Offbeat album: final resting places 

 

Mei-Mei and her husband Randy are fond of cemeteries and the stories they tell, and often seek out notable graves. The most star-studded they've found so far are:

  • Pere Lachaise in Paris (Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, Moliere, Gertrude Stein and more). 

  • San Croce Church in Florence (Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli and more)

  • Westminster Abbey in London (Chaucer, Dickens, Kipling, Darwin) but no photos allowed.

The most beautiful cemetery they've seen is the Cimitero Acattolico in Northern Rome for "non-Catholics," with luscious flowers and sculptures.

2019 Varenna cemetery best IMG_9846

Beautiful cemetery at Varenna, Italy, overlooking Lake Como

2019 Zermatt mountaineer cemetery IMG_80

Mountaineer cemetery at Zermatt, Switzerland

2019 Lauterbrunnen cemetery best IMG_037

Beautiful cemetery in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

Paris 2018 Pere Lachaise Oscar Wilde IMG_9979

Oscar Wilde

Paris 2018 Pere Lachaise Gertrude and Alice IMG_9984

Gertrude Stein with Alice Toklas inscribed on the back

Paris 2018 Pere Lachaise Gertrude and Alice IMG_9981

Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas

Paris 2018 Pantheon Marie Curie IMG_0999

Marie Curie, atop husband Pierre

Paris 2018 Montparnasse cemetery Sartre and Beauvoir IMG_9343

Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir together

Paris 2018 Pantheon three famed writers

Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas and Emile Zola all together

Paris 2018 Pere Lachaise Chopin IMG_9956

Chopin

Paris 2018 Pantheon Voltaire

Voltaire

Paris 2018 Pantheon Victor Hugo IMG_0980

Victor Hugo

Paris 2018 Invalides Napoleon tomb IMG_1186

Napoleon

Paris 2018 Pere Lachaise Jim Morrison roped off IMG_9967

Jim Morrison, now fenced off

Dublin Christ Church Cathedral best Strongbow tomb (captured Dublin in 1170) plus unknown best best

Strongbow, who captured Dublin in 1170, at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland. Unknown child next to him.

Down Cathedral St. Patrick marker as actual burial likely under church best best 2017-07-17 082

St. Patrick's grave is marked with a stone and plaque at Down Cathedral, Ireland, but his remains are likely beneath the cathedral.

Down Cathedral with high cross St Patrick likely burial spot under church best best 2017-07-17 076

St. Patrick's grave is marked with a stone and plaque at Down Cathedral, Ireland, but his remains are likely beneath the cathedral.

Jerusalem Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The spot where Jesus was cruicified. best 2017-05-08 344

The spot where Jesus was crucified. Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Jerusalem

Jerusalem Resurrection Rotunda Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The spot where Jesus was buried. best

The Resurrection Rotunda, where Jesus was buried and rose from the dead. Jerusalem Church of the Holy Sepulcher

Dublin St. Patrick's Cathedral Jonathan Swift grave best dean of cathedral 1713-1745 best best 2017-

Jonathan Swift grave, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin

Yeats grave best best 2017-07-13 012

William Butler Yeats grave, Drumcliff, Republic of Ireland

Chopin grave Paris

Chopin: Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris

Winston Church grave England

Winston Churchill (with wife Clementine), St Martin's Church, Bladon, England

2012 Florence Michelangelo grave

Michelangelo: Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence, Italy

Galileo tomb Florence Santa Croce

Galileo: Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence, Italy

2012 Monaco Princess Grace grave

Princess Grace: Monaco

2005 England Shakespeare grave

William Shakespeare: Church of the Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon

Beethovan grave, Vienna 2003

Beethovan: Zentralfriedhof, Vienna's main cemetery

Jean-Paul Sartre grave Montparnasse

Jean-Paul Sartre, Montparnasse Cemetery, Paris

Jean Seberg grave Paris Montparnasse

Jean Seberg (actress born in Iowa), Montparnasse Cemetery, Paris

2003 Europe Franz Josef grave

Franz Josef: Imperial Crypt in Vienna, Austria, beneath the Capuchin Church

2005 England Jane Austin grave

Jane Austin: Winchester Cathedral, England

2013 BA Evita tomb Buenos Aires

Evita Peron: La Recoleta Cemetery, Buenos Aires, Argentina

2005 Europe Louis the 16th grave

Louis the 16th: Basilica of St Denis, north of Paris

2005 Europe Marie Antoinette grave

Marie Antoinette: Basilica of St Denis, north of Paris

2012 Rome John Keats grave

John Keats (unnamed on tombstone): Cimitero dei protestanti or the "non-Catholic cemetery, Rome. "Here lies one whose name was writ in water" his friends immortalized.

2012 Rome Percy Shelley grave

Percy Shelley: Cimitero dei protestanti or the "non-Catholic cemetery, Rome

2003 Europe 03 Vienna Mozart grave

Mozart: St. Marx Cemetery, Vienna, Austria

2011 Columbus perhaps Spain Seville

Columbus maybe? Seville Cathedral, Seville, Spain

Georges Bizet grave Paris

Composer Georges Bizet: Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris

2011 Jackie Robinson grave Brooklyn

Jackie Robinson: Cypress Hills cemetery, Brooklyn. (Remarkably, just a few plots from my grandmother and grandfather)

Oslo Norway Ibsen grave 2015

Henrik Ibsen: Oslo, Norway VÃ¥r Frelsers gravlund

Oslo Norway grave Munch The Scream

Edvard Munch ("The Scream"): Oslo, Norway VÃ¥r Frelsers gravlund

Francisco Pizarro chapel

Francisco Pizarro, who captured and killed the Incan king and founded Lima, Peru.

L.A. Jimmy Stewart grave

Jimmy Stewart, Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Los Angeles

NC O'Henry grave 2014

O'Henry (aka William Sidney Porter): Riverside Cemetery, Asheville, North Carolina

Asheville NC Thomas Wolfe grave 2014

Thomas Wolfe ("Look Homeward Angel"): Riverside Cemetery, Asheville, North Carolina

2007 Maui Hawaii Lindbergh grave

Charles Lindbergh: Maui, Hawaii

'12 Arlington Cemetery Bobby Kennedy

Robert F. Kennedy: Arlington Cemetery

9.12 Arlington cemetery JFK Kennedy

John F. Kennedy and Jackie Onassis: Arlington Cemetery

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