French cemeteries are getting greener. No official term has yet been coined but ‘cimetière naturel’ or ‘cimetière végétal’ are the two most common. These cemeteries follow a strict set of eco-friendly rules. Their popularity is also bolstered by a whole industry that has over the last years offered greener options, from wooden coffins to personalised, eco-friendly decorative items.
“Think of it as a shared garden. It sort of taps into people’s fantasy to be buried in their own garden, at the foot of the oak tree,” said Amanda Clot, responsible for the funeral services of Niort (Deux-Sèvres) for ten years, referring to the cimetière naturel in Souché.
It forbids the use of concrete vaults or any other visible building. Bodies need to have forgone embalming procedures. The deceased need to be dressed in biodegradable fibres. Only untreated wood from French forests are allowed for coffins. Families sign a commitment pledge to follow all these rules.
“The words I keep hearing the most are: serenity, calm, peace of mind and contemplation,” she said, referring to visitors.
A total of 450 people have been laid to rest there, including coffins, urns and the scattering of ashes.
Souché spearheaded the green cemeteries movement, being France’s first to open in 2014, and is now always referred to as a source of inspiration. A handful of cemeteries have since gone ‘naturel’ such as in Thiais and Ivry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne), Arbas (Haute-Garonne), Périgné (Deux-Sèvres) and Pruillé (Maine-et-Loire) with between several dozen and more than a hundred burial grounds offered.
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The funeral service of Niort is routinely contacted by communes considering ‘cimetière paysager’ or ‘cimetière jardin’, two terms to qualify traditional cemeteries with greater vegetation.
The Cimetière Parc Paysager de Nantes (Loire-Atlantique) is one of the most popular ‘cimetières paysagers’ in France.
The atmosphere of many French cemeteries has traditionally been very grave and austere.
Wooden tombstones replace the usual stoneCéline Besacier
The default colour is often grey. Buildings are designed with mineral materials, alleys are covered in gravel. Space is optimised. Corridors are uniformly aligned and favour straight lines. Lastly, they have long been cleaned using phytosanitary products.
Over the decades, plants, trees and flowers have faded away.
“Souché is a breath of fresh air to all this,” said Ms Clot.
Seventy-three per cent of French people favoured the pursuit of their environment efforts until their death, according to OpinionWay in 2022*.
The funeral industry has followed along the ‘cimetière naturel’ trend.
Funeral firms offer greener options such as a cardboard coffin or other models of coffin and urns which contain fewer harmful substances and biodegrade more quickly than traditional models. Pivert Funeraire, a funeral chain, offers cercueils écoconçus, which are said to be treated with fewer chemicals than usual.
A firm of Paris undertakers, Advitam, offers coffins made out of recycled wood saying they are cheaper than traditional coffins, and use much less wood.
“It is about offering something else than granite, something more natural and gentle,” said Céline Besacier, who founded Sépul’nature in September 2023 following a funeral of a close relative she deemed cold and emotionless.
Clients are driven by ecological issues, most notably to avoid outsourcing granite extracted from quarries in India and China. Sépul’nature instead offers homemade, personalised and eco-friendly graves and headstones.
“The crushing weight of sadness, grief and pain disappears,” she said.
*Study carried out by OpinionWay for Homo Sapiens and Maif on 2,072 French people aged 18 or above in September 2022
