Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The grave of Irish playwright and humorist
Oscar Wilde
(1854-1900), division 89, is
among the most visited (as the unfortunate glass barrier erected around his sculpted tomb at-
tests, designed to prevent fans impregnating the stone with bright red lipstick imprints). The
other big hitter, likewise barricaded from over-zealous fans, is 1960s rock star
Jim Morris-
Up in division 92, protests saw the removal of a fence around the grave of
Monsieur
Noir
, aka journalist Yvan Salman (1848-70), shot aged 22 by Pierre Bonaparte, great-neph-
ew of Napole
́
on. Legend says women who stroke the amply filled crotch of Monsieur Noir's
prostrate bronze effigy will enjoy a better sex life and fertility.
Commemorative memorials to victims of almost every war in modern history form a
poignant alley alongside the
Mur des Fédérés
, an unmemorable plain brick wall against
which Communard insurgents were lined up, shot and buried in a mass grave in 1871.
