In fact Jim Morrison spend half a day on Père Lachaise less than a week before he died and saw the graves of Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, Honoré de Balzac and Frederic Chopin. He was with a friend (not Alain Ronay as reported before) and told this person that he would like to be buried in this cemetery. His wish was about to become reality soon.

The cemetery is open Monday-Friday from 7:30 am - 6 pm, on Saturdays it opens at 8:30 am, and on Sundays at 9 am in the summer. In winter they open at 8 am on Saturdays and Sundays at 9 am. You should be there very early to be alone at the grave and hang on to your thoughts. From about 10 am on there's a constant stream of visitors, guided tours, other tourists, bums, busses load of sight-seers and people, who come there just for their curiosity and disturb the silence. Jim's grave is the fourth most visited monument in Paris after the Eifel-Tower, the Notre Dame and the Centre Pompidou, so you better know what is going on there right now during the grave's rush-hours from 10 am - 6 pm.

You shouldn't stay in the cemetery after it closes, they have dogs watching the cemetery and you'll get into big trouble if they catch you. Don't try to climb the walls at night. I know people did it in the past when it was still easy, but now it is impossible. Be aware of the fact, that there are two cameras (video!) constantly watching the grave. One of them is hidden in the fake street lamp on the right next to the grave, and it is sending out its pictures right into the office of the guards, 24 hours a day! The other is supposed to be in one of those trees in the back. Both cameras catch every move at the grave (thanks to them they were able to bust a few drug dealers and also get some control on the prostitution which was going on over there for a couple of years). In the past there even were black masses happening at Jim's grave in the middle of the night. People were caught being already 2 meters deep digging up the grave! Today this is impossible, thanks to the cameras. If they catch you writing graffiti, they charge you for 5000 French Francs, so you'd better not even try to write graffiti.

Jim's grave is in the 6th division, second line. It is quite easy to find if you follow this way:

Get out at the Metrostation called Philippe Auguste (not Père Lachaise, as many of you still do). On the right you see a bar named Le Celtic on the other side of the street. Follow Rue Pierre Bayle up right next to this bar which leads to the walls of Père Lachaise, turn left into Rue de Repos until you see a small gate on your right. Get into the cemetery through this gate (the guards will definitely check your bags if you look like going up to Jim's) and follow the way on your right. Turn right into the next street, and left again into the next street which leads you directly to Jim's grave up the hill. (The "streets" on Père Lachaise are covered with cobblestones and they are also pretty narrow). Up the hill you'll see a very old rusty monument in front of you. Follow the narrow path between this one and the one on the left. After a very few feet you'll see Jim's grave on your left, hopefully covered with flowers (The guards use to throw all fresh flowers into the garbage can the evenings!)

Now you're right there: Jim Morrison got buried right here in this plot, 4 meters deep, on July 7th 1971 at 8:30 in the morning, in the cheapest coffin the funeral service was selling. Pamela Courson paid only 366 French Francs - old ones - for the "cercueil chêne verni", a veneered coffin, 878 Francs in total for the whole burial. A French Franc back in 1971 was about five to a dollar. Didn't she have Jim's money? Didn't she ask Bill Siddons for some money? And the funeral was disgraceful, Madame Colinette, who watched the burial, said...

The procedure of putting Jim down into the ground took less than 10 minutes, no priest was present, no prayer was said, just a few final words by Agnes Varda; everybody left in a hurry and never returned - the whole scene was piteous and miserable (this is from an interview with Madame Colinette, who witnessed the burial. The interview is to be seen in the German TV film Jim Morrison - Quiet Days In Paris, which was based on a chapter from my book)

Some notes about the history of Jim's grave: After he was buried there was nothing but a little hill of mud. A few days later somebody laid some shells around it. They got stolen, such as the black shield the cemetery officials put up in August 1971 saying in white letters DOUGLAS MORISSON, JAMES 1943-1971. In 1972 there came another shield made of stone, with the same strange (French) spelling of Jim's last name. This got stolen as well in late 1973, and the grave stayed unmarked till July 2nd 1981, when a beautiful white bust got put up (done by a Yugoslavian fan). The Doors came to pay a visit to the grave the day after, at the 10th anniversary (as documented in the video The Soft Parade and also as a private Super-8 film featured in Jim Morrison Quiet Days In Paris).

This bust, which everybody loved, got damaged by so-called fans writing graffiti, cutting the nose off, painting it --- it looked really horrible in the end, and finally it was stolen by some young French people in the night of the 7th to the 8th of May 1988. Another 3 years the grave was unmarked until Jim's parents put up a big (but horribly monumental) stone at the grave bearing a Greek saying KATA TON DAIMONA EAYTOY, which sounds like coming from an old Greek tragedy but there is no such quote. There are also different interpretations and translations available, but the most appropriate one seems to be the "Old Greek" TO THE DIVINE SPIRIT WITHIN HIMSELF. In "New Greek" it means HE CAUSED HIS OWN DEMONS. That's how the grave looks today, with its growing crowds; seems like everybody wants to see Jim's final resting place (when do you tourists watch him being moved and get a picture of his bones?). The grave's quiet days are over, definitely - and the cemetery officials are still busy using the machine Jim's parents paid for to clean all the graffiti.

The first time Jim came to Paris (without Pamela) was almost exactly a year before he died in June 1970. On June 20th, 1970, he moved into Hôtel George V. (31 Avenue George V: Metro: George V.) along with The Doors' financial manager Leon Barnard and a friend of Leon, Rick and led the life of a normal tourist visiting Napoleon's grave, the famous catacombs and the Montmartre hill, writing poetry while sitting on the stairs below the church called Sacre-Coeur. After 3 days Leon and Rick left for Copenhagen, and Jim ran into his old friend Alain Ronay by accident. Nobody of them knew that the other one was in Paris.

Jim moved out of the Hôtel Georges V about 4 days later to leave for some holidays together with Alain. They travelled through Spain and spent more than a week in Morocco (I've seen photos of Jim in Marrakesh, dressed in a colorful caftan, dancing with Moroccan children on Marrakesh's Djemaa El Fna-square. Other pictures show him sitting in a cafe high above the square, drinking some peppermint tea).

He came back to Paris about 10 days later and stayed in a very cheap hotel for American students called Hôtel de Medicis (214 Rue St. Jacques, Metro: Luxembourg) for another week until he left for L.A. to do his preparations for the Miami-trial. Entering this hotel today you can smell the damp of old age, and it is still very cheap.

Jim Morrison came back to Paris on March 11th, 1971. His girlfriend Pamela Courson (who got to Paris about a month before on February 14th 1971) was staying at the Hôtel Georges V, which Jim had recommended to her as looking like a "red plush whorehouse" and he moved in with her for a week. Then they changed into an apartment on the third floor in Rue Beautreillis 17 (Metro: Bastille, get the exit Rue Saint Antoine, walk down Rue Saint Antoine; the fifth street on your left is Rue Beautreillis), which was rented by a French model, Elizabeth (ZoZo) Lariviere and her boyfriend, an American TV producer. Jim and Pam had to pay the rent of 3000 Francs (about $600 at that time) in her absence (ZoZo left on April 10th, until then, Jim and Pam shared one of the three bedrooms in the apartment).

Pamela (as remembered by ZoZo) only talked about "Jeem" as she used to call him in her shrieky voice, but also begged ZoZo to tell lies for her in the mornings after she had stayed out with her French count Jean DeBreteuil and his friends, who Jim absolutely disliked. Jim loved the apartment in the Marais, the beautiful ancient Jewish quarter of Paris. The apartment was quiet and sunny, and he used ZoZo's desk for writing some poetry, working on his project named "Observations On America While On Trial For Obscenity In Miami", starting the script on a rock opera, writing letters to his friends, working on new poetry. He also loved the quarter of Paris he was staying at, the Marais. As reported, he went down Rue Saint Antoine with all those lovely shops offering fresh vegetables, fish and meat, bread and cheese. He bought cheese (strong smelling and tasting cheese from the Pyrénées mountains) at the little shop just round the corner, Les Fils Peuvrier (43, Rue Saint Antoine)- this does not exist anymore but is now owned by Japanese people selling gifts, and bottles of wine (preferably white wine from Bordeaux) at Vin des Pyrenees (25, Rue Beautreillis), which is still there but now a restaurant; for all of these use the same Metro exit as for Rue Beautreillis (see above).

Opposite his apartment there is a restaurant called Le Dindon en Laisse - in the early days it was named Le Beautreillis (18 Rue Beautreillis). Till 1990 it was owned by an old French couple, who had lovely stories to tell about Jim (which they knew from the restaurant's previous owner) and served lovely native French food. Then Vieran, a guy from Yugoslavia rented the restaurant, unaware of its history for Jim Morrison fans. But soon he discovered the good reputation of this place (when people showed him the Paris guide for Jim Morrison fans in the Quarterly and in my book) and changed the scene almost completely. The walls were covered with photos he took of his guests, with memorabilia of all kinds (like photos of the apartment, tiles from Jim's bathroom, photos of celebrities, letters and stickers), and he served Slavian food. He also kept visitors' books, which was interesting to have a look at (I do not want to comment some certain woman's ugly scribbling to what others wrote, so judge yourself) In 1993, he changed "Jim's room" again. Unfortunately, Vieran was forced to give up his restaurant late 1996. The atmosphere in that restaurant has obviously changed. Prices for meals and drinks doubled. Jims room is completely gone. The new owner wants his restaurant to be neat and tidy and thinks that Jim Morrison and his fans will bring him a bad reputation.

Jim (and Pamela) went to this restaurant quite often whenever they didn't want to go out too far away from their home for dinner. Last they were seen there on July 1st, 1971 at about 9:30 pm. They had a fight there at their table, although the two German students who were sitting at the same table (the restaurant was crowded that night) didn't get much of their conversation and they weren't even aware of who was sitting at the same table unless Pamela was screaming out Jim's full name while he was leaving the restaurant in a hurry, obviously to get away from her. Pamela threw some money on the table and ran after Jim through the door of Rue Beautreillis 17. One of the German students still has the empty bottle of wine Jim and Pam had that night for dinner.

Go down Rue Beautreillis, just cross Rue Saint Antoine, follow Rue Birague and enter the gorgeous Place des Vosges, where Jim Morrison used to relax, have a beer in one of the bars around and write poetry while sitting on one of the countless benches inside the lovely park. Some of his poems from Wilderness and The American Night were written here. This square still looks like one of those amazing squares in Venice, Italy, and you should spend an hour or more here, looking at all the other people relaxing. The Place des Vosges used to be Jim's favorite place to hide away from everybody.

Next stop on our Jim Morrison memorial tour through Paris is the Quai D'Anjou on the Ile St. Louis. To get there, go back into Rue Beautreillis, turn left into Rue des Lions until you get to Boulevard Henri IV. Turn right, cross the bridge called Pont Sully and walk down the stairs. Down at the quai, turn to your left. Right there, at the river Seine, Jim Morrison often used to sit watching the ships pass by and the people on the other side of the river. It definitely is beautiful there in the sun and you can forget the traffic noisily crossing the bridge. Right there at 17 Quai D'Anjou there still is the Hôtel de Lauzun, which Jim went to because Charles Baudelaire, one of his favorite French poets, was joining his Hashish club in there. Jim didn't live in this hotel, he just had a look at its great architecture, outside and inside (if you go there by Metro, the best stop will be Metro: Sully Morland).

The 6th Arrondissement is still well-known for its nightlife, and in 1971 the scene used to be even more interesting than today. Jim loved this quarter of Paris, which was absolutely hip with students and insiders in 1971 in the late Sixties. He probably went to more bars and restaurants than mentioned in this guide but these are the places he definitely was seen. The Café de Flore, a very expensive cafe, was Pamela's favorite one. She met (accompanied by the count she was hanging out with) a friend of hers in here, Tere Tereba, on June 26th, 1971, who Jim gave his last interview to a day later. Jim himself spent a great amount of his time with Pamela at the Café de Flore as well (try the hot chocolate in there, it's great). To get there, take the Metro exit St. Germain-des-Près, cross Boulevard St-Germain and turn left. You can't miss the Café de Flore in 172 Boulevard St.-Germain.

Les Deux Magots is a beautiful restaurant right next to the Café de Flore in 168 Boulevard St.-Germain. Jim loved it because of its Alt Deco design and used to have dinner in there quite often. Even today The Doors go there, whenever they are in town.

Opposite the church of St.-Germain now there is the Grand Hotel Taranne. In 1971 it was a bar called L'Astroquet (153 Boulevard St.-Germain), a casual Parisian cafe. Jim met American singer Phil Trainer in there on April 3rd 1971 and did a spontaneous jam session with members of Trainer's band Clinic, who had their guitars with them. Phil remembered them singing Crawling King Snake among countless other blues songs. He also remembered Jim chain-smoking Marlboros, which caused long and painful coughing. The L'Astroquet used to be where the hotel's reception is now.

Follow Rue Bonaparte (in northern direction off Place St.-Germain des Près) and check the 4th street on your right. This is Rue des Beaux Arts, where L'Hôtel is located (13 Rue des Beaux Arts). Jim and Pamela stayed there for a few days in May 1971 in the same room on the second floor in which Oscar Wilde died, because their regular flat in Rue Beautreillis was occupied by ZoZo and a few of her friends. Jim fell out of the window onto one car parking below one day, but didn't get hurt, wiped the dust off his jacket and continued his drinking tour.

Follow Rue Bonaparte until you see Galerie Patrice Trigano, 4bis Rue des Beaux Arts. In 1971 this used to be a hotel, and Jim had a room upstairs with Pamela during an unknown period, most probably in May 1971. An American woman named Deborah met Jim Morrison in there and talked to him, while he was sitting in the lobby watching a TV documentary on the February 10th earthquake in the Los Angeles area of the same year. Deborah remembers him mentioning "his girlfriend upstairs".

The same woman met Jim again some weeks later having a beer in a nice bar called La Palette (43 Rue de Seine) on the corner of Rue Jacques Callot. She talked to him again there and he said that he and his girlfriend had moved into a flat in the Marais. To get to this bar (which is decorated with a lot of old paintings), just follow Rue des Beaux Arts and turn left into Rue de Seine. La Palette is on your right after a few meters.

Go back Rue de Seine again on the left side. In number 57 Rue de Seine you can still visit the Whisky A Gogo, which used to be called Rock'n'Roll Circus at the time Jim was there. It was a club for night-outers, and the Parisian heroin scene met there. Bands used to play in there, and they also served food in a side room. It was here where Gilles Yepremian, a young french student, met Jim Morrison on May 7th 1971. Jim, who was totally drunk, had already spent some time sitting in the long entrance hallway which leads to the door, belling at people who were walking up the stairs. When Gilles noticed it was not a normal American tourist, knocking at the entrance door of the club trying to get in again (the security guys obviously had thrown him out before), he managed to get Jim out of the front door into the street and hired a taxi. After a stop at the bridge named Pont de la Concorde, where Jim jumped up the railing shouting nasty words about some cops walking by, Gilles hired another taxi which took them to Hervé Muller's flat in number 6 Place Tristan Bernard, where Jim stayed for the night. Jim went back there a couple of times after his first visit, and Gilles took a few photos of Jim, Pamela, Hervé and Henri-Jean Henu, a French journalist, in front of the door in mid-May 1971 (for the complete story told by Gilles, read The Doors Quarterly #29 and watch the film "Jim Morrison's Quiet Days In Paris"). The famous door (there's also Gilles' photo of Jim standing in front of it in your copy of No One Here Gets Out Alive) is still the same today. To see it, get out of the metrostation Charles De Gaulle Etoile, follow down Avenue Mac-Mahon and turn left into Avenue des Ternes, until you get to Place Tristan Bernard. The door you're looking for is on the right side of this square next to a restaurant.

Jim also met Hervé and Gilles in a bar/restaurant on 57 Avenue des Ternes, sometime in May 1971. This is long time gone, now there's a Sony Hifi-shop in there. From Place Tristan Bernard just go back Avenue des Ternes on the right side of the street, it's easy to find.

And of course you've seen photos of a meeting in a restaurant called Bar Alexandre (53 Avenue George V, Metro: George V.) taken by Hervé Muller and Yvonne Fuka, his girlfriend at that time. This meal took place on May 8th 1971 at noon. Jim Morrison used to go here quite often, and the waiters always tolerated him getting drunk as hell, because of the tips he used to give them. This noon, he got drunk as usual, threw himself on the bench opposite the restaurant shouting "I don't wanna go away! Where are you taking me?". The Bar Alexandre closed late 1990, got torn down and now there's a Japanese bank. Even the bench was taken away in 1992 (or stolen by a Morrison-fan?) So, unfortunately, there's nothing to see there now.

Hervé Muller met Jim last on June 11th 1971. Both (together with Alain Ronay and Yvonne Fuka) went to the Théâtre de la Musique, which used to be in Rue Papin (Metro: Réaumur Sebastopol), a very small side street of the big Boulevard de Sebastopol, to watch Bob Wilson's Le Regard Du Sourd (about deaf people, a play with no dialogue). It is a very small building between number 3 and number 5 Rue Papin, now closed to the public.

On June 27th, 1971 Jim Morrison, Pamela and Tere Tereba, a friend of Pamela's, went to La Coupole, a restaurant which remembered Jim of Ratner's Deli in New York (102 Boulevard du Montparnasse, Metro: Montparnasse-Bienvenue). This restaurant was pretty hip with art students; Jim and Pamela hadn't been there before. In here, Jim told Tere about his future plans, especially about his ideas showing The Doors Are Open, Feast Of Friends and HWY in Paris.

A day later, June 28th 1971, Jim Morrison, Pamela and Alain Ronay drove up north with Alain's car to Chantilly, a beautiful city just 40 minutes from Paris. They visited the amazing chateau (south of Chantilly), had a look at the architecture of the castle and the paintings inside its museum (To get three, take the A1 direction airport Charles de Gaulle, drive past the airport and take the exit Chantilly. Just follow the signs Chantilly, they lead you directly to the castle).

After they finished their sight-seeings at the castle Alain Ronay suggested to see a fête (a fairground taking place just once a year) in a near-by town. So they drove up to a little town called Saint-Leu-d'Esserent in the north-west of Chantilly. Jim and Pamela seemed to enjoy the scene and Pamela took films with Jim's Super-8 camera. Ronay took pictures of them looking at a lottery stand, where you could win guitars (!). They had a little snack (French Fries, coffee and Kronenbourg beer) at the Hôtel de l'Oise next to the fête site. Again, Ronay took a couple of photos of Jim and Pamela sitting at a table right in front of the hotel's restaurant on the left side. Today, you can still find the exact place where they were sitting, if you have a close look at Ronay's pictures, although the restaurant changed a bit. But the fete still takes place every year on the last days of June.

Opposite the hotel there's the River Oise, and that's the place where Ronay took some more photos of the couple (just look at the trees on the other side of the river, they're still there). For me it was very exciting to go there, knowing that Jim had just 4 more days to live after those last photos of him were taken (great ones published in King Magazine from Italy, a few others in Paris Match from France and some different ones in an otherwise uninteresting German Doors biography called Tanz Im Feuer by one Hans Pfitzinger).

To get to Saint-Leu-d'Esserent, drive into Chantilly (up from the castle through a big ancient gate) and turn right into the very next street, which will lead you out of the city again. Follow the street until you get to a crossing where you just can turn left or right. Turn left there and follow the signs leading you to St.-Leu- d'Esserent. Don't get mad at the usual roundabouts! Cross the old bridge across the Oise (which you can see in the background of some of Ronay's photos) and turn right into the first street after the bridge. You'll see the Hôtel de l'Oise on your left after 50 meters. Have some meal in there, excellent menus for moderate prices.

On July 1st 1971, Jim was recognized by an American fan. It was late at night, after 11 pm, and Jim Morrison was having a bottle of white Bordeaux wine, eating a Croque Monsieur, in a bar called Le Mazet (Rue St.-André des Arts, Metro: Odeon). Jim was sitting right behind the glass door on the left side of the bar. He obviously went there alone after the two German students saw him and Pam at the Restaurant Le Beautreillis. Le Mazet changed its interior almost completely in 1990. To get there, follow Rue de l'Ancien-Comédie until you get to the busy Carrefour de Buci and turn right there into Rue St.-André des Arts. See Le Mazet after a few meters on your right.

What Jim did on July 2nd is not easy to reconstruct. It is known that he went with Alain Ronay to an unknown restaurant on Rue St.- Antoine, where he didn't talk much but silently ate his dinner. Ronay noticed Jim's face looking like a death mask and remembered a hiccup torturing Jim. After dinner Alain Ronay had to leave Jim. Jim walked home to send a telegram to his publisher Jonathan Dolger. Then he went (it is not reported if he took Pamela with him) to a cinema called Action Lafayette (9 Rue Buffault, Metro: Cadet) to watch the Robert Mitchum movie Pursued, which was screened in English with French subtitles. The cinema was located in an office building and is now a boutique.

God only knows what really happened after Jim got out of the cinema. Did he go home to continue writing? Did Pamela offer him heroin which he took and overdosed? Did she let him die, sleeping off her own smack while he was in his bathtub? Or was he alone in the apartment, coughing blood while she was in bed with somebody else (as rumors go this guy is a famous French TV man today) and returned not earlier than at six in the morning? What did he die of, and where did he die? In the restrooms of the Rock'n'Roll Circus? In his own bathroom at Rue Beautreillis 17?

This tourist guide for Jim Morrison fans was carefully put together and is the most complete one you will ever get. Paris changes a lot these days, and nobody knows how long we still can see the same buildings, bars, streets and sights that Jim went to in 1971. Hurry, dear readers. When I wrote the first version of this guide for DQ 18, the Bar Alexandre was still open, the Le Beautreillis restaurant and Le Mazet hadn't even changed at all. Today everything is totally different, and just 8 years have passed. Now the whole Marais area is changing, they are tearing down ancient buildings to make space for fast food restaurants. Jim Morrison didn't leave many traces, but even the few he left are about to disappear.