< Introducing Paris

Underground Paris

Human skulls and bones on display in the Catacombes

There is more to Paris than meets the eye. Underfoot, there is a warren of over 200 km (125 miles) of former quarry tunnels, and alongside the Métro and the sewers there are Gothic vaults, wine cellars, storage rooms, parking lots and crypts, all layered one on top of the other like an enormous mille-feuille gâteau. But the star of this subterranean show is the spooky Catacombes – enormous bone-pits full of the remains of millions of Parisians.

Paris: the great Gruyère cheese

Paris is built on limestone, a stone which reveals the secrets of its primeval formation, being riddled with fossils of ancient sea creatures. It was first quarried by the Romans to build their original city of Lutetia. And, over the centuries, the limestone beneath Paris has become riddled with tunnels and holes, just like a Gruyère cheese.

The old quarries under the Left Bank also supplied the stone used in some of the city’s most famous monuments, such as Notre-Dame and the Louvre. The quarries lay far beyond the city limits but, as Paris grew, it sprawled over the old and often hazardous tunnels. In 1774, part of what is now Avenue Denfert-Rochereau fell into the darkness below, prompting the authorities to commission inspectors to map the tunnels and shore them up. It was also decided to empty out the city’s stinking, overcrowded cemeteries and turn part of the vast warren into an enormous bone store. Inspectors are still at work today, continually monitoring the safety of the old stone pillars that were installed, literally, to hold the city up.

The quarries were abandoned in the early 19th century but gypsum for plaster of Paris was mined in the northeast until 1873.

Crypts, vaults and bunkers

Many treasures were found while the city’s network of underground car parks were being dug out, among them foundations of the Roman city discovered under the square in front of Notre-Dame and now displayed in the Crypte Archéologique. This crypt also has remnants of medieval streets and walls that pre-date the cathedral by several years. Some of the most ancient cellars in the city date back to Roman times, and vestiges of the city’s first church, where Saint Denis is said to have prayed, are hidden underground at 14 Rue Pierre Nicole.

The crypts of churches, cathedrals and the Panthéon hold the remains of many of the most famous Parisians who ever lived. An especially spine-chilling encounter is to be had by taking a stroll past the bones of six million citizens, all laid out in macabre patterns in the Catacombes to the south of the city.

Beneath Paris, too, there are bank vaults full of gold bars; wine cellars stuffed with priceless bottles; bunkers from World War II, used by the Nazi occupiers and the French Resistance; as well as dozens of typically Parisian nightclubs.

Gallo-Roman ruins, visible in the Crypte Archéologique

Mushrooms and Métro stations

The end of quarrying in the early 19th century opened up a new business opportunity underground. Parisians realized that the damp tunnels were the perfect place to grow mushrooms – on horse manure, of which there was no shortage in 19th-century Paris. Mountains of champignons de Paris were grown underground until cultivation was moved out to the suburbs at the end of the 20th century.

Construction of the Métro began in 1900. With 297 stations, it is one of the world’s densest systems, carrying more than five million passengers a day. The earliest Métro line ran close to the surface, but now they are deep underground too, and were joined in the 1970s by the RER. Do not miss Métro Abbesses, one of the few original Art Noveau stations, while Métro Louvre-Rivoli has replicas of ancient art from the museum above and Métro Bastille has art depicting historic events.

Stinky sewers

It is actually possible to visit part of the 2,350 km (1,460 miles) of sewers at Les Egouts. Here, an endless stream of waste water flows in a channel down the centre of the tunnels, as drinking water gurgles through freshwater pipes that run along each side. It is stinky, but fun! The sewers run parallel to the overground world – blue and yellow “street” signs replicate the names of those above. Precious jewels, weapons, countless wallets and even a dead body have been found in these murky waters.

Touring the underground sewers of Les Egouts

Fresher waters

The Bièvre was Paris’s second river until it disappeared underground in 1912. It once ran through the 5th and 13th arrondissements and was another smelly place, where tanners and butchers worked. It still flows, however, and joins the Seine near Gare d’Austerlitz.

The reservoir beneath the Opéra Garnier, which features in The Phantom of the Opera, really exists. The pool is home to some plump, pale catfish, which are fed mussels through a grille by the staff. It is also used by local firefighters to practice rescue missions that involve swimming in darkness.

Kids’ Corner

Look out for…

1. Line 14 on the Métro. It has no driver. Instead of a driver’s cabin there is a glass window from which you can watch the tracks as you whizz ahead.
2. A hidden canal. Take a stroll along the Port d’Arsenal; here the Canal St-Martin disappears under Place de la Bastille. You can ride through it on a boat trip with Canauxrama.

3. 

   Walls and pictures built of skulls and bones. These were laid out in the Catacombes in the 18th century. Take a look if you dare.
4. The Banque de France on Rue La Vrillière. In its underground vaults are 2,642 tonnes (2,600 tons) of gold bars.

Fall of hell street

One day in 1774, there was a terrible groaning sound on the aptly named Rue d’Enfer (Hell Street) and half of it plunged into a gaping pit, soon known as the “Mouth of Hell”.

Ghostly stations

There are abandoned stations that sit like little time capsules on the Paris Métro. If you keep your eyes peeled, you might spot one. When World War II broke out in 1939, the train drivers and guards were called up to fight and many stations were closed. Champ-de-Mars is a so-called “ghost station” on line 8 between La Motte Piquet–Grenelle and Ecole Militaire stations. St-Martin is another, on lines 8 and 9 between Strasbourg–St-Denis and République. Several of them are now hired out for film shoots.