It’s hard to imagine that right below Paris, the City of Light and romance, there are thousands of tunnels lined with bones. The dark, eerie pathway of bones are centuries old in this underground cemetery, sometimes called “The World’s Largest Grave.”
When I was asked what was one of the main things that I wanted to see in Paris, my first thought was the Catacombs. I heard about them from my parents, former French teachers, and saw them in movies. Everything else in Paris was cool to see and get a picture in front of, but this was something that had always interested me. Maybe it’s my obsession with Halloween and all things spooky. I got to Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando every year. How could I be possibly scared walking past some old bones?
I would soon find out.
Nearing the end of the 10-day USFSP Food and Travel Writing in France and Germany program, some of my fellows students and I decided to tackle the line. The Catacombs opened at 10 a.m. so we thought we could get there a little early and be one of the first people in line. Not so. We walked along the line, which curved around a beautiful park, until we got to the end of the line, which ended right where the start of the line began! Thus began our four-hour wait.
Finally, we hit the entrance to the Catacombs. It was a small black little building. Above the door there was engraved into the building “ENTREE DES CATACOMBES.” My heart raced and I stepped in front of my friends to be the first one to go in. We were warned not to use flash photography or to take any bones. We started down the spiral staircase. At first it wasn’t so bad, but once I got halfway down I started to get dizzy. The stairs all look the same and there was no change for the 130 steps. I felt like I was going crazy and that they would never stop. Each step I went down, I could feel the air getting colder and colder.
The stair led to a single pathway that had dim lighting. The air felt stale and cold as I followed the pathway that continued downhill. Deeper and deeper we went into the earth and the more nervous I began. Just a couple months before, I watched a scary movie that took place in the Catacombs. A group of people went down and the majority never came back up. It was a psychological thriller and creepy things kept happening to them.
Randomly the pathway would open up on the sides and there would be another walkway, but all of them had steel fenced doors to prevent us from taking a wrong turn. When we stopped and looked, you could hardly see down them. They had no lights at all and you could only see about 5 to 10 feet into in and then it was pitch black. A couple of times we shined our phone flashlights in them. One of the times I shined my light into one of the blocked pathways and saw and empty chair! I immediately flashed back to the movie were there was an empty chair and when they turned away and looked back there was a scary looking priest sitting in it.
About 20 minutes into our walk, we reached another doorway that everyone was crowded around taking pictures in front of. When we pushed our way through the crowd, I saw the sign read “ARRETE! C’EST ICI L’EMPIRE DE LA MORT” which means “Stop! Here lies the Empire of Death.” This was it. Once you walk through this door this is where all the bones are. Taking my first step in, I looked to my left and there was bones stacked as tall as me with some skull in the middle of them. As we kept walking, some of the skulls were made into designs, like hearts and crosses.
I was surprised at how calm everyone was, including little kids. I was also surprised at how wide the pathways got once we got to where the skulls were. For the next 25 minutes of our walk, all the walls were lined with bones. Real human bones. It wasn’t like anything that I’ve seen at Halloween Horror Nights. There it seemed real because of how dark it was inside the houses. Here it was still dim lighting, but the bones were real from actual people. Some of them were molding because water was dripping from the ceiling on them, some of them you could tell were loose and could move around easily, and some were broken or you could tell how they died.
I took two pictures of two different skulls when I was there that I thought were really cool. The first one had a bullet hole right in the middle of its forehead. This really made me wonder why this person died and who he or she was. This skull really made me realize that every single one of these ones was a living, breathing person at one time. Surrounded by all this death and darkness, one skull seemed to be smiling. This skull is the background on my phone. This makes me wonder what these two people would have thought about this if they could see the Catacombs today.
Once we walked through everything and took all the pictures we could, we made our way back up the steep spiral staircase and out into the open fresh air. The Catacombs exit dropped us off somewhere, where I’m still not sure where, on a normal looking Paris street. It’s crazy to think that just minutes before I was surrounded by all these skulls in dim lighting and now I am on a semi-busy Paris street.
When people go to Paris, they see the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre museum, different churches and other popular tourist areas, but not everyone goes to the Catacombs. Out of everything I did in Paris this is something that is different than the norm that everyone sees and it is really worth it. I waited in line for 4 hours in the blazing hot sun, while I was wearing black pants, a black long sleeve shirt, and a black jacket. I would all do it again.
Going to the Catacombs
If you are to go to the Catacombs in Paris, buy your tickets in advance online. And when I mean in advance, I mean at least a month or two in advance. This way you don’t have to stand in line all day and it guarantees that you will get in. Don’t wear flip-flops or any open-toed shoes and bring a jacket or sweater. Once you get down where the skulls are, there are puddles and it’s a rocky dirt path. Make sure you have a jacket because it gets chilly down there, about 57 degrees. Tickets are about $9 for students.
For more information, go to www.catacombes.paris.fr
Samantha Sotos
Study Abroad
Food and Travel Writing in France and Germany is a 10-day, 6-credit program that is planned again for May 23-June 3, 2016. The cost depends on how many students sign up to go. For more information, email Professor Janet Keeler at jkeeler@mail.usf.edu.
For other USF study abroad opportunities and scholarship information, go to https://educationabroad.global.usf.edu.