During the 18th century, Paris’ cemeteries began to overflow. The city’s radical solution was to close the graveyards, exhuming the remains and transferring them to a ‘municipal ossuary’. The process began in 1786 with the transfer of the cemetary of the Innocents, and continued until 1860. The catacombs house the remains of over 6 million Parisians in tunnels converted from disused underground quarries.
From the Marais, its a short ride on the RER from Les Halles to Denfer-Rochereau. The entrance is a small door from the street on Avenue Denfer-Rochereau. After descending the stairs there is a 5 minute walk through a tunnel before reaching the main area. It’s dark, cool, silent – peaceful if not for the distant trudgings of other tourists. Strangely, I couldn’t convince anyone else in the family to come with me. I guess it’s not for everyone, but I have a thing for quiet, ancient, underground places.
I guess I expected to be a little more disturbed than I was. I did find it sobering, not creepy, but grounding to wander amongst the bones of thousands upon thousands. Every so often are monuments describing from where the bones had been deposited. Also, regular quotations in stone on the theme of mortality, though mostly lost on me without much knowledge of the French language. Despite the solemnity of the place the workers have obviously had some creative license, as you often find interesting arrangements of bones. Though I’m not an anatomy expert it seems that most of the bones are probably skulls and leg bones, which makes me wonder what happened to the _other_ bones. Perhaps a topic for some spooky HP Lovecraft tale…
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