Cost of Dying Soars in Paris

Paris has always been one of France's most expensive places to live. Now, city hall figures confirmed yesterday, it is one of the most expensive places to die.

The figures, published for All Souls' Day when Christians remember their dead, show that a perpetual lease on a standard plot in one of Paris's 13 sought-after central cemeteries now costs €10,501 (£7,130). Families wishing to inter their dead at the prestigious Père-Lachaise, final resting place of of Balzac, Camus, Chopin, Proust and Wilde, must pay much more than those in the suburbs. A plot in Thiais, an hour away, costs €2,640 (£1,800). The newspaper Libération reports that only the Côte d'Azur is dearer.

Aware that a Paris grave was becoming more of a luxury for its less well-heeled residents, the authorities introduced renewable leases starting at 10 years. Most families opt for a 30-year contract, deputy mayor, Yves Contassot, said.

But on a day when more than half of French adults visit a cemetery to lay flowers, a Père-Lachaise spokesman said that if such leases were not renewed, the remains would eventually be removed and incinerated. The cost of burial "and the obligation to maintain the tomb afterwards" is why people are turning to cremation, he said: some 24% of France's deceased (and 33% in Paris) are cremated, compared with almost none 30 years ago.