The Catacombs of Paris by Gilles Thomas with Diane Langlume

I slotted in a visit to the Catacombs of Paris (www.catacombes.paris.fr) when I was there for a brief holiday recently and had an out-of-this-world experience walking through an underground world filled with millions and millions of skulls and bones.  It is not the usual tourist destination that people would go and see if they are not into the macabre.  It was not as cold as one expected perhaps because the wonderment of the place took away any discomforts of the body.  If you should happen to be in Paris, do pay it a visit.  I bought the above book from the bookshop situated at the exit (above ground) but there are others you can choose from, in both French and English.  History is intriguing.


Book blurb:  Paris, the City of Light, also has its share of darkness.

Beneath the capital, a subterranean labyrinth of former quarries holds the remains of six million Parisians, moved here after a decision in the late 18th century to close cemeteries within the city walls to protect public health.

This guide accompanies visitors through the vast maze of sombre galleries and narrow corridors where limestone was once mined, and leads them between the walls of bones and macabrely romantic compositions of this fascinating "empire of death" that is the Ossuary.

A moving testimony to the history of Paris, the unique Catacombs extend an invitation to explore a realm where time stands still.

About the author:  Underground historian, co-edited the work Atlas du Paris souterrain (Parigramme, 2001) which won Thomas the Haussmann Prize 2002.  He also provides services as a technical consultant for feature films - such as Ratatouille-, documentaries (BBC, Discovery Channel, National Geographic...), journalistic, literary and academic projects.

Further reading on the Paris underground:

Caroline ARCHER, Paris Underground, New York, Mark Batty, 2005.

Valerie BROADWELL, City of Light/City of Dark (Exploring Paris Below), Bloomington, XLibris, 2007.

Emmanuel GAFFARD, Paris souterrain:  carrieres, catacombs, cryptes, egouts, tunnels/Beneath Paris:  Quarries, Catacombs, Crypts, Sewers, Tunnels (bilingual edition), Paris, Parigramme, 2007.

Tamara HOVEY, Paris Underground, New York, Orchard Books, 1991.

Alex MARSHALL, Beneath the Metropolis, New York, Carroll & Graf, 2006.

David L PIKE, Subterranean Cities.  The World Beneath Paris and London (1800-1945), Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2005.

Neil SHEA & Stephen ALVEREZ (photographer), "Under Paris:  Secrets Beneath the Streets", National Geographic, vol 219, no 2, February 2011, pp 104-125.