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Dumas' remains bound for Pantheon©Associated PressNovember 28, 2002 PARIS -- The remains of Alexandre Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers, have been exhumed from a graveyard in his native village to prepare for transfer to the Pantheon, the domed Paris monument where French luminaries are interred. Villagers in Dumas' hometown of Villers-Cotterets had initially opposed the change, saying Dumas laid out in his memoirs that he wanted to be buried there. But the village northeast of Paris, home to about 10,000 people, eventually bowed to the government's decision. The remains will be taken to Paris this weekend, his coffin flanked by musketeers and actors in period dress. "We're sad to lose him, but we're proud, too," Mayor Renaud Belliere said. Other notables buried in the Pantheon include Victor Hugo, Voltaire and the Curies. This spring, President Jacques Chirac ordered Dumas' transfer there, calling him one of France's "most turbulent children, one of its most talented -- and one of its most creative geniuses." Dumas lived from 1802 to 1870.
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