Love letter to Molière

A day to myself in Paris and I was able to fulfill a long-held ambition, to visit Père Lachaise cemetery. I decided not to take a map or make a plan, just to wander round and see what I could find. There are lots of celebrities buried there, but the cemetery is enormous and the only one I found by chance was Gay-Lussac (well, he's a celebrity to chemical engineers like me!). In the end I resorted to Google Maps and found some of the popular graves; Proust, Chopin, Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf etc. They all had visitors taking selfies, but there was no one else here at the grave of Molière, a rather unspectacular monument given that he occupies the same position in French literature as Shakespeare in English. In fact, sometimes here the expression "la langue de Molière" is used to refer to the French language. A fan had visited the day before, and left a message impaled on the railing, written on the cardboard cylinder from a toilet roll. I can't read it all from the photo but it is wholly positive, with words like 'adore', 'inspirer' and 'beaucoup', and it uses the familiar forms for 'you', 'tu' and 'te'. It was signed "Bisous (kisses), Sabine".

[Brian]

Lovely. We Chemical Engineers should stick together

[jackie edwards]

What a wonderful excursion!

[John Falconer]

Not enough seen of the tree for me to translate. But it all looks positive.
I’ve always regretted not visiting this cemetery. Maybe next trip!
Great shot too.

[Mags]

Good plan! Neat shot!

[Dave]

Wonderful shot and story.

[Pat]

How fascinating. I would have loved to walk round there with you. I did a similar walk on a much smaller scale a couple of years ago in Highgate Cemetery in London and loved it.
I’m glad you fulfilled your ambition and found this lovely tribute too.

[LManning (Laura)]

I am jealous! What a wonderful place to wander.

[Issi Bannerman]

Super capture. I love Père Lachaise. I remember being advised to visit it by a Frenchman, so many years ago, on my first visit to Paris. I found it a rather a strange piece of advice at the time, given everything there is to see in Paris. However, I did go, and it's such a wonderful place. I go back every now and then, just to wander in the lanes and avenues of tombs and history. I think the first time I went I was targeting Edith Piaf and Jim Morrison, but there are so many graves of interest there, as you rightly point out.