Paris catacombs

Although I have been to Paris a number of times, this was my first trip to the Catacombs. Val had booked this in advance, so while Betty went for a mueseum tour we headed off underground.

Which involved a metro trip. And I was left in charge of finding the way. A little out of practice in this after all my holidays with Thibault, but I am an experienced solo traveller and never had a problem with Paris metro before. Until now. No problem getting teh right line, but couldn't find the right direction. On the metro you just need to find the name of the last station in the direction you want and follow the signs. But I couldn't find a sign that tallied with what was the last station. Eventually I worked out the problem. I was using my old tube map, and the sods had stuck an extra station on the end of the line I wanted. Close scrutiny of the big maps showed that they had just taped on the extra station. Ah well, problem solved. An up we popped at the usual lovely art nouveau sign for the metro.

 

We still had plenty of time to watch the queue for tickets get ever longer. We were on a guided tour, so when it started we swept by the long line. SO note, this si something to book in advance, or maybe just not do on a Saturday morning.

Anyway, as an excursion it was well worth it, and for once I think it benefited greatly for having a guide.

The Catacombs are really interesting. Paris was running out of space to bury its dead in the cemeteries,so , even well before the French revolution, they decided to use the Roman tunnels used for quarrying stone to store the remnants of their ancestors. 5 million of them. They just took the bones and put them here, but not just in a heap, nor marking each individually, but neatly stacked. Only the name of the cemetery was marked.

Now one advantage of the guided tour as we were taken to a couple of spots that the rest of visitors are not allowed into. And one was this bit where a guy had faithfully recreated the harbour of the Spanish City in which he had been imprisoned. Brilliantly sasd story this, as having created it he was so proud that he wanted Parisians to be able to see it so he tried to build a staircase down. With the result that it collapsed and he died. And also partly destroyed what he had carved. But what remains is very impressive. And his story is still being told.Fame of sorts.

I did say the bones were stacked neatly. Well only in part. What they did is took the skulls and the long leg bones and stacked these to create a wall, behind which everything else was just chucked in. And the Catacombs became a tourist attraction even in the 19th century. To the extent that souvenir hunters would come in and sneak out with he odd skull. Early vandals, as it spoils the neat patterns.