Charles Messier

[peter_4059]

Just spent a few days in Paris and happened to visit Père Lachaise Cemetery which was quite close to where we were staying. It turns out that Charles Messier is buried there. For someone who is so well known in the Astronomy community, it surprised me that his final resting place is quite low key and hard to find. He's in Section 11.

[FlashDrive]

That's a good find ...:)

[AstroJunk]

Amazing. Who would have thunk it...

[RickS]

Very cool, Peter!

[peter_4059]

It's interesting if you google "famous graves at Père Lachaise".

"Among the famous people buried there are Peter Abelard and Héloïse, Molière, Eugène Delacroix, Jacques-Louis David, Georges Bizet, Frédéric Chopin, Honoré de Balzac, Marcel Proust, Georges Seurat, Oscar Wilde, Sarah Bernhardt, Isadora Duncan, Gertrude Stein, Colette, Edith Piaf, Marcel Marceau, Richard Wright, Yves Montand, and Jim Morrison. The remains of Abelard and Héloïse (who died in 1142 and 1164, respectively) are reportedly the oldest identifiable bones in the cemetery."

No mention of Messier though.

[silv]

No mention... indeed.
I checked wikipedia and was relieved he's listed there, at least. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_burials_at_Père_Lachaise_Ce metery

Thank you for the photos and the thread. Do you happen to remember who Messier's neighbors are in the cemetery, Peter?

[peter_4059]

According to Wiki... "Messier is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, in Section 11. The grave is fairly plain and faintly inscribed, and while it is not on most maps of the cemetery, it can be found near the grave of Frédéric Chopin, slightly to the west and directly north, and behind the small mausoleum of the jeweller Abraham-Louis Breguet."

The grave to the left in the photo is Raymonde Bourgeois.