Montparnasse Cemetery
The Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris
Brancusi's 1910 Le Baiser (The Kiss) in Montparnasse Cemetery, Paris.Literary fans take note: here lie Baudelaire, Guy de Maupassant, and Samuel Beckett (an Irishman with a live-long love affair with Paris who was buried here in a secret ceremony in 1989). Long-time lovers Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir are buried together under a single slab.
Keeping all of those literary lights company are the likes of composer Saint-Saëns (who wrote Carnival of the Animals) and Andre Citroën (the car guy).
The Montparnasse Cemetery is also home to the most famous example of Brancusi's oft-revisited Cubist sculpture Le Baiser ("The Kiss"), a pair of lovers fusing into one, lips attached, arms wrapped around each other, feet intertwined.
The sculpture decorates the grave of T. Rachevskaia, a friend of the Romanian sculptor who reportedly committed suicide over love. You can find it in division 22, section 22.
Tips
- Planning your time: I'd budget about 30–45 minutes here.
- The city of Paris sometimes organizes guided tours of the cemetery; call tel. +33-(0)1-40-33-85-85 for info.
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This article was last updated in March 2012. All information was accurate at the time.
Copyright © 1998–2012 by Reid Bramblett. All rights reserved.
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