Father Lachaise Cemetery. The world's most illustrious necropolis, the 118-acre Père-Lachaise cemetery is the final stop for more famous names than you could ever meet in a lifetime. A serene Gothic aura persists, as tombs compete in grandiosity, originality, and often, alas, dilapidation. Cobbled avenues, steep slopes, and rows of trees create a powerful atmosphere. Named after the Jesuit father -- Louis XIV's confessor -- who led the reconstruction of the Jesuit Rest House completed here in 1682, the cemetery houses the tombs of the famed medieval lovers Héloïse and Abelard; composer Chopin; artists Ingres and Georges Seurat; playwright Molière; writers Balzac, Proust, Paul Eluard, Colette, La Fontaine (of the fables), Wilde, and (buried in the same grave) Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas; popular French actress Simone Signoret and her husband, singer-actor Yves Montand; and singer Edith Piaf. One of the most popular shrines is that of rock star Jim Morrison. Get a map at the entrance on boulevard de Ménilmontant -- Père-Lachaise is an easy place in which to get lost. Easter-Sept., daily 8-6; Oct.-Easter, daily 8 AM-dusk. Métro: Gambetta, Philippe-Auguste, Père-Lachaise.