Six million skulls: The darkness beneath the city of light

Paris is one of those cities that inspires images of great beauty, romance, amazing art and architecture plus exquisite food and drink. It's a beautiful city full of culture and activity. They call Paris the City of Light and I have to agree; It certainly lives up to it's name in my opinion. We have been to Paris several times and, despite the distance from home in Australia, we will return again to walk those cobbled streets, marvel at the exhibits in the Louvre and explore the city hand in hand under daylight and the millions of lights that illuminate it at night. It's an easy city to navigate and whilst busy there's always a nice quiet park to sit in, enjoy a baguette and coffee and just watch the world pass by.

But there is a dark side of Paris as well, a place far below, where millions rest neatly stacked and ordered, in dark, damp silence.

The Catacombs of Paris lie below the busy streets in tunnels left by ancient limestone mining. These tunnels were converted to an ossuary to hold the remains of some six million people, neatly stacked one upon the other in a somewhat macabre solution to the cities' overflowing cemeteries. Preparation began on this ossuary in 1774 and from around 1786 wagon loads of remains were carted to the Catacombs night after night in a grizzly procession of the long dead people of Paris.

From around 1874 the procession was no longer the remains of dead people but tourists, live ones, as it was opened for public viewing and in 2013 the Catacombs officially became a museum of Paris.

---

I took the images above whilst walking through the Catacomb' and I know they are not great. The light wasn't all that good down there and to be honest I didn't really feel that inclined to take many pictures.

It's an odd feeling to be surrounded by the remains of millions of human beings and very surreal to see them stacked up ordered by bone group. Leg bones here, arms there, skulls over there...A truly odd feeling descended over me.

The text on the plaque above right translates to: "Bones from the Saint Innocents-cemetery laid in April 1786."

Saint Innocents-cemetery was the graveyard that sparked the initial relocation of the bones to the tunnels left from the ancient stone mines underneath Paris in the first place. Several walls had collapsed in 1774 spilling long-dead people all over the place as the weight of hundreds of years of Parisienne dead, which were stacked to the roof of the charnier galleries constructed within that cemetery, was too much for the walls to contain.

Entry to the Catacombs includes an audio tour for the 29 euro adult entry fee and, whilst a little off-putting initially, is an informative and very interesting museum to visit. It is eerie and I think most people feel that way whilst inside speaking in hushed tones or not at all. I don't think there's anything that can prepare someone for what they will see down there however in my opinion it's a must-do activity when in Paris.

We love Paris, have always found it clean, the people friendly, maybe because we speak a little French. Each time we visit we do something new plus return to a few favourite places like the Louvre, cafe's and garden's we love. It's a wondrous place full of history and the Catacombs are a part of that. A little macabre? Yes, but an experience not to be missed.

---

Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default
Hit me up on Discord: @galenkp#9209