All cemeteries in France are publicly-owned

Cimetière de Ourches

    Well, not private family cemeteries, but all of the others. 

   Every once in a while, I discover a significant cultural difference between the USA and France that catches me off guard.  This is one of them.

    All cemeteries, even ones that historically belonged to the churches, including those in attached church yards, are owned and maintained by the municipalities.

    This has been true in France since the 1905 law separating church and state, which transferred ownership and maintenance of cemeteries to the towns and cities.  This was to ensure that cemeteries remain secular, and that no one would ever be denied burial due to their religion.  Churches were granted exceptions to the law, allowing them to use cemeteries (i.e., public spaces) for religious purposes.

    It's a little weird to me - evidently, most USA-ian cemeteries are municipal, too, but plenty are owned by the churches, particularly when the cemetery is in the attached churchyard.  There has never been a time in my life in which Americans wouldn't totally lose their shit if their local church cemetery were confiscated and given to the town.   So that makes me wonder how the French populace responded back in 1905.  Don't get me wrong - I have no issue with how the French administer their cemeteries - it even seems like it might be a good idea, particularly in a country with centuries of historical conflict between catholics and protestants. It's just not what I'm accustomed to.

        So, the walled cemetery in Ourches, where my grandfather stood guard for a night in June of 1944 (panicking because he couldn't remember how to arm his gammon grenade), had TWO gates, one for Protestants and one for Catholics.   

    I had assumed it belonged to a nearby Catholic church, Église Saint Didier, which is a few blocks away. Evidently, the church dates to medieval times, so I figured the land that the cemetery sits on had belonged to the church, and that over time, the land between the two was sold, hence the separation in location.   So I had called it "Cemetery Saint Didier." But something bothered me about that: the cemetery doesn't seem to have an official name (it's just labeled "cimetière" on Google Maps, and none of my internet or AI-assisted searches gave it a name). So I did some digging (the results of which are above), and found out that "Cimetière de Ourches" is more probably correct.

Glad I looked it up. :-)