Catacombs

From Paris Hotels Reviews

Catacombs

You won’t find any celebrity dead in the nearby catacombs (Tues – Sun 10am – 5pm; €7; M° Denfert-Rochereau ), only row on row of anonymous human bones. The entrance is a few steps southeast of the cemetery on place Denfert-Rochereau – formerly place d’Enfer, or "Hell Square". This underground warren of tunnels was originally part of the gigantic quarry network underlying Paris (see Underground Paris). From 1785, a use was found for all that empty space, when it was realized that the city’s graveyards and charnel houses were fast becoming unhealthy over-full. For the next eighty years, the stony corridors were gradually filled with skeletal remains, and it is estimated that the remains of six million Parisians are interred here – more than double the population of the modern city not counting the suburbs. Lining the passageway, the long high bones, which can just be seen heaped higgledy-piggledy behind? These high femoral walls are further inset with skulls and plaques carrying light-hearted quotations such as "happy is he who always has the hour of his death in front of his eyes, and readies himself every day to die". Older children often love the whole experience, though there are a good couple of kilometers to walk, and it can quickly become claustrophobic, especially in the busier afternoon period when, if you’re unlucky, you might find yourself in a bottlenecked queue of shrieking teenagers,. It also gets fairly cold and a touch squidgy underfoot, so flip-flops and a T-shirt aren’t a great idea. Spare a thought for the uniformed gardiens, placed here to obstruct trophy-hunters and to prevent local youths of a Gothic bent slyly losing them and regrouping for midnight parties.

The area just west of Denfert-Rochereau is worth exploring. There’s a busy food market on rue Daguerre, and some interesting architecture (see Montparnasse Architecture) in the area around the cemetery.