Paris Dog Cemetery/Le Cimetière des chiens d'Asnières-sur-Seine-Part I

The Paris Dog Cemetery has been on my to do list for many years but somehow kept on moving to the bottom of the list or replaced by other more tempting things. I finally had the golden opportunity to go last month when my friend Mary, who was visiting from Cincinnatti, invited me to go with her. She had also invited Virginia Jones of the blog Paris Through My Lens, and Zabie Johnston, from the blog French Market Maven.

As I mentioned before, I seem to be blessed with good weather karma on my day trips and it was a sunny, clear, unseasonably warm January day with the temperature in the 40s. The cemetery is located in a suburb just outside of Paris, Asnières-sur-Seine, reachable by metro. Coming out of the metro, you knew you weren't in central Paris anymore more with modest architecture most likely from the early 1900s and very little traces of grand Haussmmanian buildings. It was a working class area with a mostly north African population. We passed a Moroccan bakery and I chowed down on some delicious mid-east pastries during the 15 minute walk to the cemetery.

The cemetery has an inviting setting high above the Seine and is surrounded by a stone wall and a grand archway with intricate grill work. Built in 1899, the cemetery was built out of necessity because a law was passed in 1898 that pets had to be buried in graves at least 100 meters from their dwellings. It was originally just for dogs but in latter years other kinds of domesticated animals were buried there including cats, birds, mice, hamsters, rabbits, and fish. Today there are over 40,000 animals buried in the cemetery.

Unlike human cemeteries, many of the tombstones had photos of the pets. Some had very elaborate, carnival-like decorations including tinsel, cutesy plastic or a stone animal figurine, colored beads, and bunches of fake flowers. Some even had leftover Christmas decorations with little Santa’s, Christmas trees, and holly. I especially liked the beautifully carved stone statues with touches of thick green moss.There were many stray cats in the cemetery and it was a bit eery seeing them resting on top of the graves. One of things that struck me most was the incredible love and attention lavished on the graves by the owners and for some reason I have never experienced that to the same degree at a human cemetery.

My friend Mary is a cemetery enthusiast and most times when she comes to Paris she invites me to go to some obscure cemetery with her. We met for the first time three years ago when she invited me to the Russian cemetery outside of Paris with Rudolph Nureyev's grave, and we have been friends ever since. Thanks Mary for sharing your world of cemeteries and for our Paris cemetery adventures. I look forward to the next one.

Tomorrow I will share more photos.

Open daily (except Mondays) year-round. Gates open at 10AM & closing time is 6 p.m. (March 16 to October 15) or 4:30 p.m. (October 16 - March 15). Admission 3.50 euros for adults and 1.50 euro for children from 6 to 12.

Here is a link for metro directions to the cemetery.

http://europeforvisitors.com/paris/articles/paris-dog-cemetery-directions.htm

 

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Comments

[Sarah T Skinner]

I loved this!! Im definitely going to visit, thanks Richard!

[MadAboutParis]

Richard, it's a pleasure to know you and to have someone else to share my cemetery passions. A la prochaine!
xx,
Mary

[Paris]

Hello,

I was in a hotel in Clichy near Asnières. I was in Paris to see a show in the Odeon Theater (http://www.theatre-odeon.fr).

I visited the cemetery and it is very strange to see some tombstones for dogs and cats !!!

[Loria Schleiff]

I haven't tried to visit a pet cemetery, but I'm quite amazed with the tombstone of some dogs and other animals because they include their pictures when they were alive. Did you see the tombstone of celebrity dog Rin Tin Tin there?