Cross Word Books
Cross Word Books
Michele McAloon
Wild Lives Among The Graves
25 minutes Posted Dec 12, 2025 at 7:00 am.
Welcome And Why This Book Shines
Meet The Director Of Père Lachaise
Size, Age And Scale Of The Cemetery
Why Père Lachaise Is World Famous
How French Burial Concessions Work
Reclaiming Abandoned Graves
A Living Cemetery With Wildlife
Who Père Lachaise Was
Benoît’s Path To Curator And Life On Site
Night Walks, No Ghosts, And Bird Phobia
Favorite Graves And Closing
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Show notes
Send us Fan Mail A million stories rest under the trees of Père Lachaise, and some of them still move. We sit down with curator and author-photographer Benoît Galliot to walk the avenues of Paris’s most visited cemetery and discover why it feels so alive. From neo-gothic chapels and art nouveau tombs to foxes raising kits among ivy, this tour blends cultural history with urban ecology in a way that surprises and soothes. Benoît opens the gate on a distinctly French approach to burial: time-b...