Tombes de Molière et de La Fontaine

You are approaching a pair of tombs that represent one of the most successful public relations stunts in French history. When the cemetery first opened in the early nineteenth century, it was unpopular, deemed too far from the city center and lacking in prestige. To draw in the public, city officials orchestrated the relocation of the remains of the renowned playwright Molière and the famous fabulist Jean de La Fontaine to this site in 1817. This strategy created a posthumous celebrity endorsement that transformed the cemetery from a deserted plot into the most coveted burial ground in Paris.