...Or else you might be severely punished. That's right, punished.

In case you hadn't heard, there's a small town in southern France called Sarpourenx where the cemetery has reached capacity. There's no more room for anyone to be buried there and the mayor has issued an edict.

If you do not already have a plot in the cemetery and you wish to be buried there, you are not forbidden from dying. And will be severely punished if you do.

I cannot, even with my twisted and warped mind and sense of humor, begin to imagine what sort of punishment could come *after* you die that a being still walking this earth could render as effective. And it's a 'severe' punishment.

Now this all came about because trying to work out a deal with a neighboring town wasn't happening. Pau, the next village over, said that extending the cemetery was apparently not a good enough reason for taking over some private land in that town. Sarpourenx would have to deal with it's overcrowded cemetery itself.

It makes you wonder what people are going to resort to in the case of death, sudden or otherwise. They aren't the only town that's going through this. A small hamlet in Ireland last spring ruled that graves were now to be narrowed due to overcrowding and that they could be dug 3 deep instead of two deep. Mausoleums are being built in some New England states due to the shortage of cemetery land.

My in-laws already purchased a small 'cubbyhole' for lack of a better word and are planning on cremation due to overcrowding. I wonder what DH and I will face when we need to start planning for that because it's clear we won't have a family plot - the land is just too expensive and they're turning people down left and right for that. I suppose the best we could hope for it that double stack our coffins, but personally I think cremation is going to have to be the way to go.

I know, morose topic for a Monday, but it was running through my brain. A very tired brain because of Daylight Screwup Time. But still one that recognizes the very absurdity of how someone is going to punish residents who die without a plot in that very small town in the south of France. It's not like he can throw them in jail after they're dead...

...perhaps he'll throw them in a dungeon instead?