Today in Paris we’re going to see the Catacombs which we’re really excited about.
If you haven’t heard of the Catacombs before it’s basically a series of tunnels underground in Paris
and in the eighteenth century there was a real problem in this city
with overflowing cemeteries and apparently the remains of more than six million people are buried underground.
You can see all the bones and it’s been open to the public for tours since about 1874 I think I read.
So we’re going to head there now which I’m really looking forward to
because I’ve heard so much about it and I’ve never been.
Welcome to the Paris Catacombs.
When you came down this narrow spiral staircase you left the city and the world of the living
and slipped, without even noticing it, into the underbelly of the capital.
It’s a world of fantasy, a refuge for outlaws and drop outs,
a place of exploration for night owls craving new experiences.
I wouldn’t want to be too tall in here.
No.
These are all old limestone quarries and apparently the quarries spread all over Paris
underneath the suburbs well into the twentieth century and the one that we’re walking through now
was dug out, they think, in the fifteenth century.
It’s extremely old and you can see places in the wall in the eighteenth century
where inspectors came to fill things in and check them out and they put the date
and there’s just so many layers of history, not to mention the geology here.
It’s so cool to walk through.
All I want to do is yell HELLO!
Should I do it?
No.
You can definitely notice a difference in the temperature from street level down all of these steps.
Apparently it is fourteen degrees all through the year
and I’m glad I have a sweater because it is a little bit chilly.
We noticed while we were walking there’s this black line continuously all along the ceiling
and just realized that when they opened this in the nineteenth century to the public for the first time
there was no electricity down here.
So that was apparently to help people get their bearings when it was really, really dark
so they could find their way.
So that’s why there’s that black line all the way along.
There’s so many bones in here.
It’s very overwhelming and they’ve arranged the femur bones and the skulls in different patterns
and I’m just walking around thinking about all these people and how they all had a story
and they were all babies who were born and lived and had lives and now it’s a pile of bones.
It’s hard to imagine.
And you can tell where different bones are from - which cemetery -
because there are signs to tell you where they came from and when they were moved.
I just keep thinking about each one having a story and a life and friends, hopefully,
and there’s just millions of lives represented here.
It’s really overwhelming.
Apparently when they first started moving them they just dumped them in to save time
and, after a while, they started giving a bit more respect and arranging them
in a way that was like a cemetery.
And this does have the same kind of energy or feeling as…as a cemetery or a burial ground, as it should.
Makes sense.
It’s very heavy.
Still processing everything we’ve seen here but
we’ve seen a lot of bones, a lot of skulls.
A lot of peoples’ lives represented.
So we’ve been down here for about two hours.
Yeah, about that.
And we’re about to head back to street level.
Well when we went into the catacombs it was light outside
and we were in there so long that the sun has now gone.
It was about two hours and we came out in a totally different place than we went in,
obviously, because we were walking underground…
Blocks and blocks and blocks away from where we started.
…for a really long time.
And I think what strikes me the most about the whole experience is just knowing that
all of that network of tunnels and layers of history is underneath the current city.
Just layers of time, layers of history, and how…
And all those people.
And all those millions and millions of people.
It’s unbelievable and we just saw a very, very small portion of what’s actually there.
I actually heard someone say that was only one eight hundredth of what’s down there.
I don’t know if that’s true but…
Yeah.
It’s insane.
I don’t know why, I thought we would be in and out in twenty minutes for some reason.
Yeah.
Maybe I thought it was going to be a little more like the Mummy Museum we saw in Mexico
but it just stretched on and on and on and on and there’s so many inscriptions everywhere
and plaques.
Yeah, there’s beautiful quotes about death from many, many different authors and sources
and it just…it felt very reflective walking through
and, not to be corny, but honestly my takeaway here is that I’m really glad to be alive
because when you’re walking through, you know, kilometres of bones
it really drives home the fact that your life is very insignificant and puts things into perspective.
Whatever’s going wrong that day or that month or whatever, like…
It really did.
Like just really be thankful that you’re here to live.
‘Cause you won’t be for long.
That’s true.
That’s kind of how I’m feeling now.
And on that note…
Oh!
The streetlight just came on.
Let there be light.
Ahhhh!
That’s so funny.
Well we hope that you enjoyed seeing the Catacombs as much as we did.
It was so interesting.
If you haven’t already, please subscribe to our channel for more travel videos
and we’ll see you in the next one.
Bye!