The Paris Catacombs: The Lair of the Parisian Sprayers

In addition to the post from the Paris Metro, I am writing a post from the Paris Catacombs!  

We started with a walk along the former Paris Ring railroad. In the 20th century, it was used for passenger transportation but was later closed due to unprofitability and the opening of subway lines.

The railroad runs through a neighborhood but it is only visible from the balconies of houses. From the street, it is obscured by gardens tended by Parisian grannies, or simply by a fence. The gardens have seeped onto the railroad itself.

The walls and tunnels are made of stone. Newer reinforcements of concrete are found in the tunnels in places. This is due to the fact that tall buildings have now been built over the tunnel.

First, we walked the entire length of the railroad to the gate, behind which the tracks are now dismantled, and then went to the entrance to the catacombs.

We entered the catacombs. For about an hour we were lost near the entrance, looking for the right path to the main part of the catacombs. At some point, we returned to the entrance and saw someone's light ahead. It turned out to be a group of two Romanians from Bucharest, one of whom was a guide, and their third companion turned out to be a Russian. After meeting each other, we continued together to search for the right way. On the way, we met two more Frenchmen. So we went deep into the catacombs.

We chatted in our international company in English until one funny moment. One of our Russian speakers tripped on a wet rock and spoke loudly and expressively about it in untranslatable Russian. And then one of the French said, "Oh, can we speak Russian?" It turned out that his mother was Russian. So there were four Russian speakers in our company of seven.

Our route went through many places, not all of them we could photograph because we were moving fast. According to my phone, we traveled about 25 kilometers underground but only managed to explore a small part of the catacombs. The full exploration of the entire 300-kilometer system will take weeks...

At the first break, the Romanians took out a huge loaf of hashish and lit up. In a few minutes, they became very cheerful and started to offer it to the others. And so it was at every stop. On average the Romanians filled the cave with sweet smoke just a little less than full just in time for us to find all the good angles and finish taking pictures. By the middle of our trip underground, I was feeling quite excited and active and tipsy, too. Passive smoking is fun sometimes! By the time we left, half of the loaf was gone.

The catacombs are partly flooded. In some places there are areas waist-deep and deeper, sometimes you can bypass them along the wall, and sometimes only by wading. The water has a beautiful turquoise hue before a passerby picks up the limestone mud in it.

The day I went to the catacombs was my last day in Paris. I was passing through there lightly, so I could not take any special equipment. The next morning I had to be at the airport. Therefore I solved the problem of wet boots simply: I wore slippers.

One of the attractions of the catacombs: the column hall, which was entirely covered in graffiti. Here, for example, an artist did a parody of Japan's "Wave in Kanagawa".

Not far away is the cinema.

There are often parties where people sometimes fall into the well, as the French told us.

The grotto "Soleil" - "Sun." Between the rays of the sun are written the names of the main teams of "cataphiles."

Wide paths change with narrow ones.

In some places you can hear the subway trains pass over you.

The catacombs go back to Roman times, and many of the tunnels were excavated in the Middle Ages when the city was actively being built. At some point, the uncontrolled growth of the catacombs led to their partial collapse. In 1774, there was a large subsidence and the collapse of the entire street. Therefore, in 1776 Louis 16 established a general inspection of the quarries. Its task at that time was to clean the system (with the organization inside the famous ossuaries) and a complete inspection of it with the mapping and reinforcement of the vaults in the right places. Truly ambitious work took about 100 years, and its results have survived to this day. The General Inspectorate of Quarries is still in operation today, although it is now predominantly engaged in catching Parisian urbexers.

Sometimes it is possible to reach the surface of such wells. Through them, the mined stone was unloaded.

Many of the paths duplicate the streets under which they pass. This is proved by the engraved tablets on the walls when the system was being refined by the General Inspectorate of the Quarries.

There are also memorial signs.

Landslide?

Another grotto.

One more painted hall and we are going to exit. Here someone made a whole mosaic.

And here the stars are painted with phosphorus. You can charge them with a light and make a break under the starry sky.

That's it! What do they say in France? FIN!

Until we meet again!