Jim Morrison

“In life, I had the choice between love, drugs and death. I chose the first two and the third chose me”
Jim Morrison

When I mention the name of Jim Morrison, some say (shaking their heads): another famous drug addict, alcoholic, exibitionist who died of an overdose. Everybody knows that Jim was a rock-star, the front man of the American rock group “The Doors”, stunningly good-looking, a sex-symbol, a shooting star, a member of the “27 Club” (Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones, Amy Winehouse) all dead at the age of 27.

But how many know that he was also an avid reader of Nietzsche, Plutarque, Whitman, Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Aldous Huxley, Dylan Thomas, Rousseau, Sartre, Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, etc ? How many read his poetry or know he was a film-maker, passionate about “la nouvelle vague” (the “new wave” in cinema - Truffaut and Godard)?

He came to Paris hoping to start a new life, to begin writing poetry again, to escape his past and his trial in Florida. At the same time Paris was famous for its bars and bistros, and Pamela Courson (drug addict and love of his life) as well as Jean de Breteuil (the heroin dealer to the stars) were not far away.

With this walk I’ve done my best to trace Jim Morrison’s footsteps during this famous, tragic day, the last of his life.

“Made the scene from week to week,
day to day, hour to hour
the gate is straight, deep and wide,
Break on through to the other side,
break on through to the other side,
break, break, break.” (Jim Morrison)