CHAPTER III: Cemeteries and funeral operations

Each municipality or each public establishment for inter-municipal cooperation with jurisdiction over cemeteries has at least one cemetery comprising a plot dedicated to the burial of the dead and, in municipalities with 2,000 or more inhabitants or public establishments for inter-municipal cooperation with 2,000 or more inhabitants with jurisdiction over cemeteries, at least one cinerary site intended to receive the ashes of deceased persons whose body has given rise to…

The area dedicated to the burial of the dead is five times larger than the space required to deposit the presumed number of dead who may be buried there each year. The cinerary site intended for the reception of the ashes of deceased persons whose body has given rise to cremation includes a space arranged for their scattering and fitted with equipment mentioning the identity of the deceased, as well…

Burial in a cemetery of a commune is due: 1° To persons deceased on its territory, regardless of their domicile; 2° To persons domiciled on its territory, even though they would have died in another commune; 3° To persons not domiciled in the commune but entitled to a family burial there; 4° French nationals established outside France who do not have a family burial plot in the commune and who…

An order of the mayor assigns in perpetuity, in the cemetery, a fitted ossuary where the exhumed remains are immediately reburied. The mayor may also arrange for the cremation of the exhumed remains in the absence of any known or attested opposition from the deceased. The remains of persons who had expressed their opposition to cremation are segregated within the ossuary.

No one may, without authorisation, erect any dwelling or dig any well within 100 metres of new cemeteries transferred out of the communes. Existing buildings may not be restored or increased without authorisation. Wells may, after a contradictory visit by experts, be filled in by decision of the representative of the State in the département.

Where cemeteries are moved, the existing cemeteries are closed as soon as the new sites are ready to receive burials. They remain in the state in which they are, without any use being made of them for five years. However, burials may continue to be made in family vaults built in disused cemeteries, up to the number of spaces available at the time of closure of these cemeteries, provided that…

After the five-year period, disused cemeteries may be leased by the communes to which they belong, but on condition that they are only sown or planted, without any excavation or foundation for building constructions being made until otherwise ordered.

Cemeteries may not be alienated until ten years after the last burial.

Any person may be buried on a particular property, provided that the property is outside the precincts of towns and cities and at the prescribed distance.

No burials may take place in churches, temples, synagogues, hospitals, public chapels, and generally in any enclosed and closed buildings where citizens gather for the celebration of their faiths, nor within the precincts of towns and cities. However, the mayor may, as a public tribute, authorise the construction of monuments to the founders and benefactors of the establishment within the hospital grounds, and after consulting its board of directors, where…