Riders On The Storm

Paris, France

“It takes great courage to see the world in all its tainted glory, and still to love it.”Oscar Wilde

I was sitting in the garden this morning drinking my coffee when a neighbor started blaring Riders on the Storm by The Doors so I knew it was the Universe telling me that today was the day to visit Cimetiere du Père-Lachaise to pay my respects to Jim Morrison…and Édith Piaf, my fellow Sagittarians.

Cimetiere du Père-Lachaise is only a five-minute walk from the apartment I've rented so it has been on my list of places to visit in the neighborhood. You know how I love a good stroll through a cemetery.

There are many famous people buried in Cimetiere du Père-Lachaise but there were four people at the top of my list to visit. In addition to Jim and Edith, I wanted to visit Oscar Wilde (whose full legal name is Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde), and Frederick Chopin’s graves.

Bonus: I have a little surprise for all of you later about a grave I found along the way that now has a special meaning to me. Keep reading.

Once inside the cemetery, which had a surprising amount of visitors, I headed to see Jim first. His grave was the closest to the entrance.

There was a queue of four people when I arrived and more people lined up behind me. He is still popular after all these years. I wonder how he feels about that.

“IT MAY HAVE BEEN IN PIECES BUT I GAVE YOU THE BEST OF ME.” JIM MORRISON

James Douglas Morrison 1943-1971 “Kata Ton Daimona Eautou”. Interesting fact: the epitaph on his tombstone is ancient Greek translated to “True to his own spirit.”

“When he died young, it fell to his survivors to choose the inscription that sums him up. The resulting text isn’t in the language that he spoke or sang, or a language that he had any special connection to. It’s not even in a living language.”

It is slightly more complicated than what I wrote and shared, so if you want to read more about it, click the link above.

Sadly, Jim was found dead in the bathtub of his girlfriend’s apartment at the age of 27. A number of celebrities have died at this age leading to a group called the 27 Club, including Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Kurt Cobain, Brian Jones, Pat Tilman, and Morrison’s girlfriend who found him in the tub, Pamela Courson, etc.