Goin’ to a party where no one’s still alive.
Wednesday our group visited the much-anticipated Paris Catacombs! Bones and stairs, bones and stairs, bones and stairs! Lots of stairs, as the catacombs are roughly eight stories underground, and lots of bones, as upwards of six million people are interred in the ossuaries. It was just as awesome as I had hoped, and I got to learn a lot more about the site. Spooky and educational!
I’m also excited because I’ve also been saving this title for a looooong time. Though you probably haven’t noticed, all my blogs have been named after song lyrics so far (my brother lovingly said I’m naming my blogs “like fanfiction on AO3”). So Oingo Boingo’s Dead Man’s Party is of course the perfect name for a place like the Catacombs, because it really was quite lively down there. Sure, almost everyone down there was dead, but it was the work of living human hands that made the place possible, and that legacy is still very much alive.
Bone column :0
The greatest take-away I had from the catacombs’ history was that at the end of the day, the Paris Catacombs are just an early example of successful adaptive reuse. The empty space left by sandstone quarries was filled with bones when the old cemetery had to be relocated, and then (a hundred plus years later) the abandoned piles of bones were converted into a tourist attraction. And a tourist attraction it remains! And the tastes of tourists clearly haven’t changed, because people still visit en masse! Well, maybe not as dramatic as “en masse,” but there were several other groups besides us touring the tunnels.
Bone heart. They had fun making this one <3
The French of the 19th century arranged the bones artistically, and left us inscriptions with just the right amount of melodrama that you would expect from an underground bone tunnel. Remains were arranged into shapes of tombstones, crosses, wrapped around corners and columns, and—my personal favorite—shaped like a heart. A heart made of human skulls, eight stories underground, an unlikely marriage between symbols of life and death, love and separation—but also eternity.
That is to say, the Paris Catacombs are very much still alive, and the fruits of labors long past still do their jobs well (fascinating and unnerving tourists). And while they haven’t remained entirely unscathed—thanks to bone thieves and people compelled to write their names on skulls for some reason (seriously?)—they still provide much the same experience as they always have. That’s what makes them feel so alive to me, much like the Pantheon, the Eiffel Tower, and the Luxembourg Gardens, as well as countless other places across Paris. The Catacombs are still living beneath us, and I think they have a long time yet.
“God is not the author of death.”
I think you make a great point about how the Catacombs still feel authentic, especially since some of the other places feel like they are being advertised to you while you’re in them (cough cough Versailles cough cough). I thought I was going to be more creeped out, but I agree that the Catacombs felt more poetic, in a way.
I totally agree! Normally I feel like I have a more negative reaction to things that are *designed* to attract tourists but the Catacombs never felt that way– I’m obsessed with even its most dramatic elements.
I was also excited to see the Catacombs, but I thought the bones would be neatly placed and scattered along the wall, but was I surprised to see stack of bones from floor to ceiling. I thought it was nice that they stacked and had the bones arranged in meaningful shapes. I agree with your statement that the bones are very much alive today. As I was walking between the walls of bones, it did feel like a special moment, to remember the people that died and are resting in the catacombs. These people may not be known by name but there is an atmosphere of reverence and respect remembering these people.
I also really enjoyed the Catacombs and your bones shirt!! I also agree with the other comments that although it was turned into a tourist attraction it didn’t feel like another Versailles. I hope this doesn’t contradict, but the gift shop was top notch. I did feel a tiny bit awkward/guilty in that, if I was one of those skeletons would I want to be put on display and arranged into fun shapes for the living to enjoy? Not reallyyyyyy, but i’d also be dead. I also see the benefit of Paris giving the empty quarries another life, haha. And while the amount of stairs was extensive, I was most surprised coming out of the catacombs a 1/2 mile from where we started!! It made me feel like I was walking on dead people everywhere once we were back above ground, although there are also metros, sewers, and dirt…