Paris (AFP)

Le Marais, the quais des bouquinistes, Saint-Germain-des-Prés or the Place des Vosges: this is the Paris of Jim Morrison, who died in the city 50 years ago and was buried in Père-Lachaise.

All pilgrimages pass through the famous cemetery in eastern Paris and the modest tomb of the "King Lizard" in a corner that is still a little lost, despite the geolocation applications.

He was buried there on July 7, 1971 (his death was declared on July 3).

But it is also "a cemetery that he particularly liked, he often walked here, he would have liked to be buried alongside Oscar Wilde", another celebrity of the place, tells AFP Sophie Rosemont, rock critic .

To avoid any "fuss", his relatives finally chose "a location away from everything", recalls the journalist, passionate about the leader of the Doors.

Lost sentence: it is the most visited tomb.

Patti Smith even posed next door, for a faded photo.

The stele is surrounded by barriers, which will still be put to the test by admirers numb on July 3.

The last home during his lifetime was 17 rue Beautreillis, in Le Marais, an apartment on the 3rd floor, occupied by Elizabeth Larivière, known as "Zozo", a model at the time, who sublet to him.

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The singer had joined in Paris his companion Pamela Courson (notorious heroin addict, while he drinks, especially) and wanted to devote himself "to writing", says Sophie Rosemont.

He will only live in Paris for three months.

- "Not dead here" -

"He was going to buy his white wine at + Vins des Pyrénées +, a wine merchant in the rue Beautreillis. In the corner, there is the Place des Vosges, the Île Saint-Louis, the quais des bouquinistes, where he went to the 'total anonymity,' says Sophie Rosemont.

According to the official version, Jim Morrison died in his bathtub at the age of 27 from cardiac arrest.

On the facade, a sheet of paper glued high up, however, indicates in English that "Jim Morrison did not die here".

Because in recent years, another music has been heard.

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Journalist and writer Sam Bernett claims in his books that the rock icon overdosed in the toilets of a Parisian nightclub, "Rock'n'Roll Circus", of which he was the manager.

"His face was gray, eyes closed, there was blood under his nose, a whitish slime like foam around the slightly open mouth," he writes in "Jim Morrison, The Truth" (ed. Rock).

Marianne Faithfull even assures in an interview with Mojo that it is Jean de Breteuil, dealer of the stars and her boyfriend at the time, who had provided her with the fatal dose.

- "A pretty crazy place" -

Located at 57 rue de Seine (the place, which no longer exists, communicated with the Alcazar), "the Rock'n'Roll Circus was a pretty crazy place, frequented by intellectuals, trendy people, hippies, kids. thugs, big thugs, people of the bourgeoisie, stars like Mick Jagger ", narrates Sophie Rosemont in front of the AFP camera.

During the interview, a bearded sixty-year-old introduces himself: "Pete, American who lives in Germany, whom Jim Morrison hooked up in Paris".

Since 1991 he has been coming to the French capital around the anniversary of his death, for one of these "meetings of Jim's friends, in the cafes around Père-Lachaise".

It will undoubtedly also pass by the English bookstore Shakespeare and Company.

"It's a place that Morrison immediately took over, he didn't speak French very well, even if he liked Rimbaud, Beaudelaire, Mallarmé a lot," explains Sophie Rosemont.

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We are here in the heart of Jim Morrison's Paris, "not far from the Latin Quarter, the Left Bank, not so far from Agnès Varda, a friend, not far at all from Saint-Germain-des-Près, from the café La Palette, where he was going to drink ".

And where glasses will no doubt be raised to his health on Saturday.

© 2021 AFP