I was in Paris a couple of days ago for a very short while….more specifically, 3 days. This trip to the French capital was a little different from my previous travels: I was traveling with a friend for the first time. To be clear, it was my first time traveling with a friend and not a group of friends and not my hubby, and it was my first time traveling with this particular friend. Despite this, we had a great time in Paris! This was not my first visit to the French capital and I thought I had seen all the sights already: the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Notre Dame Cathedral, Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysées, Sacre Coeur and Montmartre. Of course I had to do it all again because my friend had never visited Paris. But I reckon Paris is one of those places you could keeping visiting every 5 years and not get sick of seeing the same beautiful architecture. On this trip, I got to see a few more things that I had not seen like La Fayette and Moulin Rouge, which were a disappointment in my opinion. However, I really liked our visit to the underground ossuaries, the Catacombs in Paris. While it was a little bit creepy, it was like nothing else I have ever seen before!
The history of the Catacombs makes an interesting read. Super briefly: the underground maze was originally dug up to supply the city with Lutetian Limestone, which most of the buildings in Paris are built with. Once the mines were depleted, they were abandoned and forgotten. However, problems struck the city in the 18th century when Paris experienced not one but several cave-ins as more housing were being built above the mines. Hence, this led to investigations and reinforcement of the underground tunnels. Meanwhile, the city’s cemeteries were experiencing severe overcrowding and were practically overflowing, hence prompting the move of Parisian dead to the underground passageways. Since the early 1800s, the catacombs have been a tourist attraction, welcoming visitors to the world’s largest grave everyday.
Opening hours of the catacombs start from 10 in the morning but from what we have experienced, queuing starts as early as 9am or even 8am! The first time we tried to enter the catacombs, the queue had already made a whole round around the park surrounding the entrance so that the two ends of the queue met. I reckon that was a 300m line by opening time. Our second attempt at getting in was our successful attempt. We joined the queue at 9am and by that time, the queue was about 50m long already. Standing in line was not so bad…at least it wasn’t until it started raining. There are no possibilities of shelter in this area so if you are planning to do this, bring an umbrella or be prepared to buy one!!! A full 30 minutes of heavy downpour got us to a really ‘great’ start. Thankfully, a father-daughter pair from Toronto in front of us were willing to share their umbrella until we bought ours.
When the doors finally opened at exactly 10am, we thought the line would move and we would get shelter in a matter of minutes. Big mistake! While the official website of the Catacombs mentions that the number of visitors are restricted to 200 people at a time, admission is very slow; they admit about 10 visitors at a time with a 5 minute pause in between each admission. So, a 50m queue ahead of us took another hour to get through before we could finally buy tickets. In total, we waited for 2 hours to get in. I reckon that is the shortest possible time to wait because the people at the start of the queue had probably started queuing since 8am. Admission fee was €10 per adult. Alternatively, hiring a tour guide through the Catacombs was possible. At 10am, a lady started walking through the line advertising for a tour at €30 per person with the possibility of skipping the queue. But after having waited for an hour already, “skipping the queue” for a tour guide at triple the admission fee seemed ludicrous.
Once we had crossed the turnstyle, we started our descent into the Catacombs, climbing down a narrow spiral stairwell. With a rush of excitement, we climbed down the steps rather fast such that 130 steps later, I was feeling a bit dizzy. The foot of the stairs opened up to a chamber where posters were set up along the walls describing the history of the Catacombs. From this chamber, we continued on through a length of narrow dimly lit tunnels that accommodated visitors in single file (2nd picture from the top). The tunnels did not seem to be perfectly horizontal and at times, I could tell that they were descending or ascending. The deeper we ventured into the abandoned mine, the cooler it got so a sweater is recommended. The tunnels opened up to more chambers and some times, the tunnels were wide enough to walk in pairs (3rd picture from the top).
The first big chamber we entered presented the kinds of minerals and fossils found under Paris. While this was a small chamber compared to what was coming up next, it contained a wealth of information together with a generous display of geology. The second extensive chamber we entered was the grave. Piled from the ground to the ceiling were bones arranged in a particular pattern that was both intriguing and a bit disturbing. With empty sockets staring back, the thought that these were once living people sent chills down my spine.
While the chambers were dry most of the time, we did find pools of water on the ground and water dripping from the ceiling that just added to the creepy atmosphere. I would not want to spend the night down there alone. The grave seemed endless and the arrangement of bones got more creative making turns and spherical sculptures. I must admit that at one point, it even became beautiful. I started wondering how I would feel about my bones being used in the Catacombs. But I guess when I’m dead it wouldn’t really matter much, would it?!
Belosophy 