An Invisible City Beneath Paris
newyorker.com
newyorker.com
This article, like others, are so eager to wrap an outing into the catacombs as some type of adventure, a mystical experience, where misstep ends in death and dying a slow death in a deep corner of a labyrinth is inevitable but for your guide.
The catacombs are the Parisian equivalent of hanging out in the woods / trainyard / whatever when you were 19 - 25. Paris is en expensive city. When you're young and want to go out / get drunk / leave the watchful eye of your parents and societal structures, you go into the catacombs.
If you go the weekends, you have to try very very hard to avoid people. There are no "catacomb rules" or codes of conduct. It's a place used for self expression, typically of youth, and mainly for socialising.
It's a little bit frustrating to see articles rendering what is very much a commonplace affair hyperbolic.
You only get to see a small part of the many, many millions of bones, piled from floor to ceiling. And somehow, while you're down there, you adapt quickly to the "new normal" and it's simply morbidly fascinating. Like being in a haunted house.
But then, once you take the elevator back up to the surface, and you walk down the same street in normal life with normal people... and you realize the many, many, many millions of bones (an estimated 6-7 million people) weren't a horror movie you saw that's now ended, but are still right there, just a mere five stories beneath your feet. And they're not going anywhere. It was only then that I realized... it was real. Not a movie, not fake. It's a crazy experience.
http://bienfun.free.fr/Plan-des-catacombes-nexus-2007.jpg
https://blogs.valpo.edu/studyabroad/files/2011/03/plan_catac...
(In French, naturally, but French<>English is one of the cases where Google Translate works very well.)
> The plan of the above-ground city is traced carefully in pale silver-gray ink, such that, if you read only for the gray, you can discern the faint footprints of apartment blocks and embassies, parks and ornamental gardens, boulevards and streets, the churches, the railway lines and the train stations, all hovering there, intricate and immaterial.
> The map’s real content—the topography it inks in black and blue and orange and red—is the invisible city
A friend of a friend knew the ropes and his way around and was eager to show the foreigner his hidden playground.
I didn't entertain the offer out of fear for my own safety.
Carpe diem.
Not available in most of Europe
Can't use it to paper a wall
[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2688775-the-wild-places
Book name: Underground
Author: Will hunt
amazon search url: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=under+ground+will+hunt
While I highly recommend both the public and the illegal part if you have the chance, definitely don't go without an experienced guide as it can be dangerous for real. There are also strict social codes that should be followed when crossing paths with others down there.
I'm intrigued... what are they?
I didn't actually read the article, but from what I heard the catacombs used to be a lot less safe. I've been told that in the 90s it would be a very bad idea to venture down as one or a small group of women without significant risk for personal safety. Some of the rules definitely come from just being able to preserve the space and experience, but I would guess that some of the social codes also come from enforcing a safer space.
Your friend might have been been pulling your leg (or taking himself too seriously..)
There are no social codes. That's the appeal of the catacombs. The space imposes no rules or structure. It is a bubble of freedom. Anything you follow is self imposed.
The danger is definitely real. If you don't know where you're going you might get lost and people get lost for good from time to time. In the more visited parts someone might find you, but if you take a wrong turn and fall in bad luck it's no good.
I don't want a random tourist go unprepared after reading this and have an accident or require medical assistance when it could have been avoided. Just like if you go hiking a mountain or spelunking.
Did you go the same way as in the article or via another entrance?
The catacombs are constant temperature, so a great way to escape the heatwave ;)
(of course normalized by #people)
> In cave surveys, carbide lamps are favoured for the lead or "point" surveyor, who must identify suitable points in the cave to designate as survey stations. The sooty carbide flame may be used to mark cave walls with a station label.
> The acetylene producing reaction is exothermic, which means that the lamp's reactor vessel will become quite warm to the touch; this can be used to warm the hands. The heat from the flame can also be used to warm the body by allowing the exhaust gases to flow under a shirt or poncho pulled out from the body, a technique discovered almost immediately by cold miners, and nicknamed by cavers the "Palmer furnace".
A large number of people go down with the lights of their phones these days.