While in Paris, we took a tour of the Catacombs. It was 10€ each & took less than an hour. I had booked tickets online in advance however, it did seem that you could show up & purchase tickets. Just check online to see the available time slots before heading over there.

The catacombs were 130 winding steps below street level & once down we needed to walk 2km to reach the exit, another 130 steps back up. We were able to walk alone & since there were very few people walking through that night, it felt like we had it all to ourselves. This was creepy of course, but it also allowed us plenty of time to think about it & take pictures. Seeing human bones, especially that many of them, is something to think about. It really puts you in touch with your mortality to think, “Huh. That’s all that will be left of me one day and that’s really all that lies beneath this meaty flesh.” So, if you’re not squeamish & you find this interesting, I highly recommend this tour. Here are some images of what you will see if you visit the Catacombs:

For the first half of the walk we didn’t see any bones. We were concerned that maybe the bones weren’t actually part of the tour, that we had paid to simply walk underground. Eventually we reached this sign above the entrance to a room.

“Stop! This is the Empire of the Dead”

For the next 30 minutes, this is what we saw. Bones, stacked on bones, stacked on bones surrounding us. And this was our reaction:

No, I’m only kidding! We only felt like that for 25 of those 30 minutes.

Have you been to the Catacombs? Would you go on this tour? Leave me your thoughts below.