Jim Morrison on stage at the Fillmore East in the East Village in New York.
Jim Morrison on stage at the Fillmore East in the East Village in New York.
In the fall of 2001 I was in Paris. My approach is to look for the place at the very bottom of what Lonely Planet is willing to mention. In Paris this was l'Hôtel de Medicis (214 Rue St. Jacques, Metro: Luxembourg).
It wasn't until much later that I realized that I very nearly stayed in Jim Morrison's room! Not the same room where he stayed, but a very similar one just upstairs.
The owner of jimsroom.com found this page and explained: "I stumbled upon your website with the photos of the Hôtel de Medicis, and yes he did stay there for a couple of weeks not long before he died. However, the room in which you stayed is not the room in which Jim Morrison stayed. Jim was in room 4 which is on the first floor after you go up the stairs from the office. The room in which you stayed, judging from the green sink (there is only one in the hotel) is most likely room 20 which is on the third floor all the way to the end of the corridor on the right, last door, courtyard." Yes, that's the room I had.
Compare the image below of the view from my room with the image of the view from Jim's room at jimsroom.com, looking at the building with three floors of four windows each. Eye-level in my room was approximately level with the top of the top row of windows; that from Jim's room with the tops of the windows two floors below. Also, my room was a little further to the left when facing the courtyard, which is to say a little further down the hall from the stairway.
| June 20-24, 1970 |
Jim stayed at
Hôtel George V
(31 Ave George V, Metro: George V). Departure approximate, described as "about 4 days later". |
| July 1970 |
Jim stayed one week at
l'Hôtel de Medicis. Date approximate, described as after "more than a week in Morocco" and some time in Spain after leaving Paris on or about June 24th. |
| March 11, 1971 | Jim returned to Paris. His girlfriend Pamela Courson was staying at the Hôtel Georges V. |
| March 18, 1971 | Jim and Pamela moved to an apartment on the third floor at Rue Beautreillis 17. |
| May, 1971 | Jim and Pamela stayed for a few days at l'Hôtel (13 Rue des Beaux Arts) in a room on the second floor because their apartment was being used by some friends of a French model with whom they shared it. The room they occupied was the one in which Oscar Wilde died. |
| May, 1971 | Jim and Pamela stayed for a few days at 4bis Rue des Beaux Arts, upstairs in what was then a hotel but now is the Galerie Patrice Trigano. |
| July 3, 1971 | Jim dies in his bathtub at Rue Beautreillis 17. |
| July 7, 1971 | Jim is buried at Père Lachaise cemetery on the east side of Paris. |
| Some of this information is from the very useful page "The Complete Paris Guide for Doors Fans" where you can find far more detail. | |
| Music | The Doors (Jan 1967) |
| Strange Days (Oct 1967) | |
| Waiting for the Sun (July 1968) | |
| The Soft Parade (June 1969) | |
| Morrison Hotel (Feb 1970) | |
| L.A. Woman (April 1971) | |
| An American Prayer (Nov 1978) | |
| Books |
The Lords and The New Creatures (1969) 1985 edition: ISBN 0-7119-0552-5 |
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An American Prayer (1970) privately printed
by Western Lithographers. Unauthorized edition of disputed authenticity published in 1983, Zeppelin Publishing Company, ISBN 0-915628-46-5. |
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Wilderness: The Lost Writings Of Jim Morrison (1988). 1990 edition: ISBN 0-14-011910-8 |
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The American Night: The Writings of Jim Morrison (1990). 1991 edition: ISBN 0-670-83772-5 |
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| Films | HWY: An American Pastoral (1969) |
| Feast of Friends (1970) |
Here are scans of my admittedly poor photographs of l'Hôtel de Medicis.
You climb a narrow staircase from the street. Each landing opens into an even narrower hallway.
The doors open into the rooms.
The room has a simple bed and set of shelves.
The window looks across the courtyard at the center of the block to the backs of other small hotels and apartment buildings.
The room has some plumbing facilities — a sink and a bidet.
The room is simple but adequate. It has a small desk and chair. It has a fireplace but it no longer functions. At least the fireplace provides a mantle to hold your bottle of cheap wine, your fresh bagettes, and your box of juice.
Here are some much better images, from a visit to Paris in 2005 with a digital camera. See "The Complete Paris Guide for Doors Fans" for a good description of where Jim lived in Paris.
Rue Beautreillis 17. Jim returned to Paris on 11 March 1971. He lived with his girlfriend Pamela Courson at the Hôtel Georges V for a week. They then moved to an apartment on the 3rd floor of this building.
To get there, take the Metro to the Bastille station. Exit, head west on Rue Saint Antoine for a few blocks, then turn left on Rue Beautrellis.
l'Hôtel de Medicis, at left and above. In the picture at left, the entryway is the first one at left, just before the shop with the yellow front window frame.
L'Hôtel de Medicis is at 214 Rue Saint Jacques, +33-01-43-26-22-35-01-43.
They don't take reservations, you have to just show up and take your chances. The time I stayed there was in late October and a room was available. The next time was in early June and they were full.
Here is how to find Jim's grave at Cimetiere de Pere Lachaise.
It's grave #30 in section #6. See the picture of the map below.
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The inscription on Jim Morrison's grave in Paris:
ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΝ ΔΑΙΜΟΝΑ ΕΑΥΤΟΥ Κατα Τον Δαιμονα Εαυτου KATA TON DAIMONA EAUTOU. Depending on which translation you choose, this is said to mean:
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| © Bob Cromwell Sep 2010. Created with /bin/vi and ImageMagick, hosted on OpenBSD with Apache. Root password available here, privacy policy here. |
