Georges Brassens, Singer's grave in Sète, France
The grave of Georges Brassens is located in the Le Py cemetery in Sète, France, at the southern edge of the city near the Étang de Thau lagoon. The plot sits in the 9th section and is a plain, low grave that the singer purchased for himself while still alive.
The Le Py cemetery was founded in 1877 and was originally built to bury poor people and contained many common graves. Brassens, born in Sète in 1921 and died in 1981, chose to be buried in his home city, the place he carried throughout his songs and his life.
The grave carries an inscription with the opening lines of Corneille's poem 'Stances à Marquise', which speaks of youth and passing time, themes that ran through Brassens's work throughout his life. Visitors leave flowers, painted stones, pipes, or pine cones, small personal gestures that show how close he remained to ordinary people.
The Le Py cemetery is generally open daily from spring through fall and is easy to reach on foot if you are already in the southern part of Sète. The grave is in section 9, aisle 4, and is clearly marked on site, so finding it takes little effort.
The last person to be buried in the family tomb was Joha Heiman, known as Püppchen, the singer's muse, who was laid to rest there in 1999. A second inscription on the grave comes from Tristan Bernard and is a humorous line, a deliberate counterpoint to the more serious Corneille verses.
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