This happens every year. The Fête des Morts à Paris has been running for some fifteen years, a week-long festival that brings Mexican Día de Muertos to the French capital at the start of November.
What it involves. Dance, theatre, music, lectures and food tastings across emblematic Parisian venues, including the sixteenth-century church known as the "little Notre-Dame", past which a procession of catrinas in full costume passes each year while La Llorona is sung. Traditional ofrendas are installed in front of historic churches: copal, cempasúchil, sugar skulls and photographs layered across the tiers.
The literary side. The festival has paid tribute to three Mexican figures who spent long periods of their lives in France — Octavio Paz, Diego Rivera and Carlos Fuentes — alongside work by contemporary Mexican artists, such as Fernando Quintero's papier-mâché Frida skulls.
Why it exists. Día de Muertos was inscribed by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2008, and the Mexican relationship with the dead has travelled further than almost any other part of the culture. Hollywood noticed; so did Paris.
If you are in Mexico City instead. The original runs on 1 and 2 November: the cemetery vigils of Míxquic, Xochimilco and Iztapalapa, the UNAM megaofrenda and the Zócalo altar. Confirm the Paris dates with the organisers each year, since they shift around the first weekend of November.
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