"Stop! This is the empire of death!" by Smidgeon
The visitor’s guide says that the catacombs store the bones of around six million Parisians, not three million as stated in a previous post. When I went there I expected I would get the full effect of that (well okay, not quite the full effect, but still!) by walking through whole rooms where the walls were dressed with bones and so on. After about 500 meters of boneless corridor there’s basically just more corridor though, except it’s lined with bones. In any case, this is a very special place to visit if you can even begin to realize what it is you’re actually surrounded by. I recommend going with someone who can translate the French/latin quotes among the bones, unfortunately they are not translated into English (the inscription over the entrance to the catacombs that I’ve quoted in the title is the only inscription translated in the visitor’s guide). Be sure to arrive before 1 o’clock for shorter lines, and if you don’t pick up a visitor’s guide at the entrance, bring a map. We had no idea how to get back to our car near the entrance when we walked out into the daylight again, you feel like you walk out into the middle of nowhere.
over 2 years ago
