Grave of Paul Verlaine

The poet Paul Verlaine lies here in the Cimetière des Batignolles, resting within the family vault alongside his parents and his son. His journey to this quiet spot was interrupted by the construction of the Boulevard Périphérique, the massive ring road that circles Paris. When the highway was built over the original section of the cemetery in the late nineteen-sixties, his grave fell into a noisy, degraded area shadowed by the concrete viaduct. In nineteen-eighty-nine, city officials moved his tomb to this more peaceful, honorary location at the cemetery roundabout to better preserve the memory of a man who changed the course of French literature.