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IStock / City Presse

While some prefer to be buried, many people choose to be cremated.

But can we do what we want with its ashes?

Since 2008, the law has prohibited keeping the ashes of a deceased person at home.

They must be kept or dispersed in an appropriate place.

After cremation, two choices are therefore possible: keep the ashes in an urn in a suitable burial site - family vault, cavern, columbarium, etc. -, or else disperse them, while respecting certain conditions.

If burial and cremation are today the only two rites allowed by French law, alternatives exist.

Dispersion in nature

Lovers of the great outdoors, do you dream of eternal rest in the heart of nature?

In France, the dispersion of ashes in the countryside, at sea or in the mountains is regulated by law.

A declaration to the town hall of the deceased's place of birth is required.

A register indicates its identity, the date and the place of dispersion.

Note, however, that the ashes cannot be divided: they must rest in the same place.

Be careful, we cannot disperse them on the public highway, so we forget the idea of ​​throwing them from the top of the Eiffel Tower, in a city garden or even on the banks of a canal (rivers and courtyards water being considered as public roads).

It is also possible to bury the urn on private property, but under conditions and only after prior request to the prefecture.

Finally, if you have chosen to take your ashes abroad, you must go through the embassy or consulate of the country of destination in order to obtain the necessary authorizations.

Reincarnate as a tree

What if you recycle your ashes?

This is what several companies offer, such as Urne Bios, which invented an ecological funeral urn.

The ashes are placed in a biodegradable receptacle and are mixed with potting soil and a plant seed, which you have previously chosen.

The latter will feed on the nutrients of your ashes to give birth to a tree, dedicated to your memory.

Appeared at the end of the 1990s in Anglo-Saxon countries, this alternative offers another vision of death, directly linked to life and nature, and wants to be respectful of the environment since these replanted trees will produce oxygen and will create natural habitats for birds and small animals.

Now available in France via kits sold online, these organic urns cost around a hundred euros, according to the manufacturers, and are intended to be buried in the wilderness, after having informed the town hall of the town of the place of birth. of the disappeared.

Space funerals

Finishing your trip in space, here is an unusual idea.

The ashes of Gene Roddenberry, writer and producer of

Star Trek

, have been sent into orbit in space, and those of planetologist Eugene Shoemaker have rested in a moon crater since 1999.

Today, American companies such as Celestis or Elysium Space propose to send a symbolic portion of human dust into the stars, via a tiny capsule equipped with a tracer: the family can even follow the path of the deceased thanks to an application. .

Crazy alternatives

The human imagination has no limits.

Abroad, companies have invented sometimes very surprising concepts to give new life to your ashes.

Include them in a fireworks display to set off in style, incorporate them into a real vinyl, on which you can record your favorite music or a personal message, or even create an eternal diamond from the carbon present in human dust ...

The idea is to offer your loved ones a memory, certainly strange, but imperishable of you.

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Memorial gardens and funeral parks

If you do not have a concession or a family vault, some cemeteries offer "gardens of remembrance" where you can scatter the ashes of the deceased.

In the same vein, funeral parks allow urns to be placed in quiet and wooded spaces.

For those who remain, mourning is sometimes less difficult when there is an identifiable place of contemplation, which is not necessarily the case when the body is handed over to the elements.

In this, these dedicated places can be a good compromise.

  • Nature

  • Forest

  • Space

  • Ashes

  • Funeral

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