The Catacombs

After our late night at the Eiffel tower yesterday, we were glad we could sleep in a bit this morning. Our tickets for the Catacombs had an entry time of 11:00 am, and we had instructions to get there by the M6 metro towards Nation. So I took advantage of our spare time and washed out some clothing in our bathroom sink. With wet clothes hanging throughout our hotel room, headed off to see the dead.
Getting tickets to the Catacombs proved very challenging. Through the Catacombs internet site, tickets are only available to purchase a maximum of 7 days in advance due to a high fraudulent problem. So I waited until 7 days ahead and voila! No tickets were available for the day I wanted to attend. It was so frustrating! I ended up paying more money to buy tickets through a tour group but at least I got some!
We weren't sure how busy the metro would be or how long it would take us to reach our destination, so we left early enough to be sure to reach our entry point for the Catacombs, even if we got lost, which was a very real possibility. As a result, we were about half an hour early and found a bench in a nearby park to wait for our turn to enter.
Wearing our audio guides, we climbed down circular stone steps into the abandoned quarries of old and entered a narrow tunnel that led us even deeper into the earth. We learned that these quarries were made by mining limestone and those stones were used to build the palaces and the Cathedral of Paris.
Unfortunately, the quarries started collapsing and simultaneously the cemeteries were literally overflowing and causing disease, so finally a plan was made to shore up the tunnels and create the Catacombs.
It was both eerie and intriguing to walk among the bones of those who died centuries ago. Skulls stacked amongst the femurs seemed to gaze back at us as we strolled by. They probably share stories each night about the funny tourists that come to stare at them and how weirdly they dress now.Read more