Paris residents can enter lottery to share cemetery space with Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde

Registration for the draw opened on Monday and closes on December 31st

The city of Paris has announced a lottery with a new feature: instead of a cash prize, participants can win the opportunity to be buried in one of the most famous cemeteries in the French capital.

This unusual plan aims to restore tombs that are in a poor state of conservation, while giving Paris residents a rare opportunity to secure one of the most sought-after plots, the City Council said in a statement published on Friday.

Cemeteries within the city walls have been nearly full since the early 20th century, with cleaning of abandoned graves complicated by local regulations, the authority explained.

But now, lottery winners will have the opportunity to purchase and restore one of 30 graves in three different cemeteries, with the City Council agreeing to lease the corresponding burial plot to those who meet certain standards.

“In recent decades, visitors to cemeteries across France have expressed interest in restoring a historic funerary monument in order to obtain in exchange the grant of land for burial,” the City Council said in the statement.

However, giving them the opportunity to do so has been complicated by laws governing the land on which the tomb is located, which is owned by the state, and concessions, under which a family rents the land for a set period of time.

Now, the City Council hopes to have found a solution, with ten plots up for grabs in the Père-Lachaise cemetery, which counts “The Doors” lead singer Jim Morrison, playwright Oscar Wilde and singer Édith Piaf among its illustrious residents.

There are also ten plots in the Montparnasse cemetery, where the writers Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Susan Sontag lived, as well as another ten in the Montmartre cemetery, where the painter Edgar Degas, the writer Émile Zola and the dancer Vaslav Nijinsky are buried.

Each existing tomb will be available for purchase for 4,000 euros, with the winners also being responsible for restoration costs.

They will then be able to purchase a rental contract, the cost of which starts at 976 euros for a 10-year contract and increases to 17,668 euros for the right to stay there in perpetuity.

According to the City Council, registration for the draw opened on Monday and ends on December 31st, with each candidate subject to a registration fee of 125 euros.