"I see dead people" in Montparnasse

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS PHOTOGRAPHS OF HUMAN BONES

Date: May 9th, 2012

My sister and teenage niece are visiting us in Paris, and today I am joining them for the spookiest of their sightseeing days, the bone-filled Catacombs and celebrity-studded cemetery in Montparnasse.

We reach the Catacombs 45 minutes after opening time and the line to get in is already snaking around the corner. That is a depressing sight, especially in the drizzling rain, but in about 45 minutes we are in.

I have wanted to visit the Catacombs for a while now, ever since I read a fascinating article in the National Geographic about this underground world. Of course their reporters went off the beaten track, into the illegal world of trespassing "cataphiles", which involved entering via manholes and using hard-hats. I am staying on the tourist route, entering via a narrow spiral staircase with 130 steps. No hard-hats needed here, but I am glad I came in my hiking shoes, as the water dripping from the ceiling makes the floor quite slippery.

The Catacombs are part of a large system of quarries spreading out under a big portion of what is today's Paris, with a combined length of about 280 km (174 miles). Their location made sense when stone was mined here for a much smaller Paris, starting in the 13th century. But as the city grew over the centuries, building spread over the long-forgotten tunnels. This created a series of deadly collapses, so at the end of the 18th century various divisions were created to survey, inspect and maintain these tunnels. Engraved signs on the tunnel walls are testimony of this work.

Engraved sign on the wall of the tunnel

Engraved sign on the wall of the tunnel

Engraved sign on the wall of the tunnel

A peek into a tunnel closed to the public

Sediments on display in the Paris Catacombs

While most of the quarries are closed to visitors, the section housing the ossuary (final resting place of human skeletal remains) is open to the public. By the 18th century Paris' cemeteries became so overcrowded that they posed a public health hazard. Many of these cemeteries were closed down. Human remains were moved to the abandoned mines in night-time processions of black-veiled carts, accompanied by singing priests. That would make an excellent scene in a horror movie, wouldn't it?

We enter the ossuary via an opening with the ominous inscription: "Stop! This is the empire of death". The remains of about 6 million people are buried here. By the 19th century the Catacombs became a tourist attraction of a sort, and the skulls and femurs were arranged into morbidly attractive displays. These include tomb stones and other decorations moved here from the closed down cemeteries. The use of flash photography is prohibited, so the pictures posted here show only a small portion of what is on display.

Entrance to ossuary with the inscription: "Stop! This is the empire of death"

Human bones in the Paris Catacombs

Human bones in the Paris Catacombs

Human bones in the Paris Catacombs 

Human bones in the Paris Catacombs

Inside the Paris Catacombs

Inside the Paris Catacombs - bones moved in 1787 from the cemetery Cimetiere Des Innocents

Inside the Paris Catacombs

Human bones in the Paris Catacombs

Human bones in the Paris Catacombs

The walk among the bones is longer than I expected. The length of the tour is about 2 km (1.24 miles) and most of it is spent among the dead. The tour is not recommended for people with respiratory weakness and I think I know why. I start to feel a bit funny, a similar feeling I get at high elevations. Perhaps the oxygen level is lower than on the surface? On the other hand my sister and niece don't feel anything, so maybe I am just imagining it?

The visit is also not recommended for small children, which does not stop a couple coming with a 2-year old toddler. He is on his dad's arms and, while daddy leans in to take a better picture, the little boy playfully picks up a skull. Just like a ball. Everyone is horrified and the skull is quickly placed back on the pile. The child, loosing his new "toy", starts screaming and we quickly move away. No, I guess it's not a good idea to visit with a small child.

After about 45 minutes underground, we take 83 steps up on a spiral staircase (yes, less than going down!) and we emerge into the sunlight. Across the street is a souvenir shop selling anything even remotely connected to bones and spookiness in general. Plenty of skulls of course, from simple to sparkly, and bone motives everywhere.

On the way out from the Paris Catacombs

On the way out from the Paris Catacombs

The spooky souvenir shop at the exit of the Paris Catacombs

After a pleasant lunch it's a short walk to our second "deadly" stop of the day, the Montparnasse Cemetery. This cemetery, the second largest in Paris-proper, was opened in 1824 to replace the old overcrowded cemeteries. Since then some 300,000 people have been buried here, including a number of famous personalities.

Montparnasse Cemetery

The grounds are cut into two by a road and we start with the smaller one, the Petit Cimetiere. Most of the tombs seem to be for families, rather than for individuals, and it's obvious at first glance that this is the burial place of the affluent. People buried in this section include the novelist Guy de Maupassant, the creator of the Statue of Liberty Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, and Andre Citroen - founder of the famous car company. Visually the most interesting is probably The Charles Pigeon family tomb, which depicts the inventor in bed with his wife.

Montparnasse Cemetery

Monument in the Montparnasse Cemetery

Tomb of Andre Citroen in the Montparnasse Cemetery

One of the tombs in the Montparnasse Cemetery

The Charles Pigeon family tomb in the Montparnasse Cemetery

We cross the road and enter the Grand Cimetiere, whose famous residents include the existentialist couple Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, the Hollywood actress Jean Seberg, the poet Charles Baudelaire, the 70's French pop icon Serge Gainsbourg and others. We are not in the mood to follow the guide book map, so we just wonder around, admiring the elaborate tombstones along the way.

The tomb of Serge Gainsbourg in the Montparnasse Cemetery

Tombstone in the Montparnasse Cemetery 

Tombstone in the Montparnasse Cemetery

Horace Daillion's Angel of Eternal Sleep in the Montparnasse Cemetery

The Montparnasse cemetery was originally created on farm land. Today the only reminder of these rural beginnings is the 17th century windmill on the grounds. Modernity is close by as well, with the 209 meter (690 feet) tall Tour Montparnasse towering nearby.

Windmill in the Montparnasse Cemetery

View of Tour Montparnasse from Montparnasse Cemetery

We ponder for a while the idea of continuing with some more lively sights (the view from Tour Montparnasse is supposed to be amazing) but are too tired and call it a day instead. The "day of the dead" I suppose.