Exploring the Catacombs - A Guided Tour of Paris's City of the Dead

👉🏻Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe. Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts about this bizarre and macabre place.

In this video, Jessica the Museum Guide (that’s me!) takes you on a tour of the infamous Parisian Catacombs. We’ll explore the history of these ancient mines and how they became an ossuary, visit the most famous places within the Catacombs, and talk about cataphiles, illegal exploration, and creepy concerts.

As always, thanks for watching. Be sure to leave your comments and questions below.

0:00 – Introduction to the tour
1:55 – The ancient history of the mines
4:41 – The markings on the walls and the Catacombs Workshop
5:30 – Entering the Empire of Death and the Sepulchral Lamp
6:18 – The relocation of the skeletons
8:56 – The Port Mahon rock carvings and the Fountain of the Samaritan Woman
10:15 – Monuments to the French Revolution
11:24 – Moliere and La Fontaine
13:10 – The gravestone of Françoise Gillain
14:05 – A concert at the Tibia Rotunda
15:02 – The “Cataphiles” and illegal exploration
16:03 – Discovering an illegal cinema in the Catacombs
17:34 – AirBnb offers a night in the Catacombs?

First, we descend 131 steps down into the ancient mine complex 20 metres (65 feet) beneath the streets. We traverse the corridors and caves while examining evidence of the miners, including signs and the old workshop.

Next, we visit some of the Catacombs' most iconic sites, including the Port Mahon carvings, the Sepulchral Lamp, and the Fountain de la Samaritaine. We examine the monuments to the French Revolution, and discuss the relocation of Moliere and La Fontaine to Pere Lachaise Cemetery.

After visiting Françoise Gillain's gravestone, we travel back in time to an 1897 concert at the Tibia Rotunda, followed by a discussion of the ever creepy 'cataphiles,' people who illegally explore the off-limits areas. Finally, we talk about the police finding an illegal cinema and restaurants in the Catacombs, and discuss the ethics of Air BnB offering a night inside as a contest prize.

Make sure you subscribe to my channel and click the bell 🔔 notification so you always find out about new videos right away!

Like The Museum Guide on Facebook!

Hana Elvy creates my thumbnails – you can hire her to make your YouTube thumbnails here:

[lornfant]

When I visited I was fascinated by the work, the passion put into caring for all the bones. About half way through, as I paused to look at one of the sculptures, admiring one particular skull I was struck by the idea that this was once a person. They had a name, a family, a home somewhere not far. That these were all people. That spooked me a bit. But it made the history of Paris more personal, more real. Thank you! Wonderful video.

[GypsyWolfGina]

Your video is SO MUCH BETTER than the History Channel's documentary on this place.

[texelz]

This has to be my most favourite YouTube channel of 2022!!! I absolutely love anything strange, macabre and weird

[chrisball]

"Adventure seekers, the curious and the morbid"- AKA- good peeps. When I'm dead, I'm happy for my bones to be used for anything that serves some purpose and improves the lives of those still living. I personally like the idea of being part of some weird subterranean memento mori more than I like the idea of being ground up for fertiliser, but so long as what's left of me proves useful, that's the important thing.

The idea of my lifeless husk being pointlessly maintained for decades in some hermetically sealed but ultimately useless 'eternal sleep' fantasy casket, beneath a manicured golf course cemetery dotted with identikit headstones nobody visits, is far more depressing to me than my last remnant being an anonymous skull gawped at by the occasional tourist.

[tamarrajames]

Thank you for the lovely stroll in the catacombs. I think the Paris ones are the best examples extant. I would not be disturbed o have my bones displayed, or even used creatively (once I’m done using them). My ideal choice would be human composting, so my body and bones could become life giving to other things. I think the catacombs are strangely beautiful and inspirational. Most of us today have not lived with this kind of magnitude of death, but it could so easily happen again that we should learn from our ancestors.🖤🇨🇦

[leslietarkin]

Great video. The catacombs are really interesting. It's a deeply moving experience b/c you think about all these people. Who were they? What was their lives like? What time period did they live in? Were they happy? Where were they born b/c out 6mils people surely, not all of them were born in Paris. I would not like to be buried in a catacomb. I want to be buried in my family's cemetery. No, AirB&B should not have done the contest. It was disrespectful.

[stardustsparkles]

You earned a new subscriber! Id love to see more videos about the catacombs. I can't get enough of them.

[annettewillis]

Another wonderful stroll. So informative even though I have been there twice! An underground city of the dead that reminds us all that life is fleeting. It is truly a fascinating place that can also flood if the Seine rises. Thank you so much. Your videos are always interesting!

[jenniferd]

So glad that you included As Above So Below! Definitly not one of the most top rated horror flicks, but I loved it.

[QuinnMallory-odhw]

Thanks for the video, I'd never be able to get there, also way too creepy for me. It's a very sad and sombre notion that so many people are forgotten to time in such a place. But since crematoriums, I don't think there will be any new arrivals. Maybe that's for the best.

[clarkharvell]

I wanna go on an unsanctioned That would be so amazing! I love history, I love things macabre! As I pass my 55th year I see my demise as being ever closer. We are here for such a short time and we toil away just trying to survive... It is so sobering. I find it interesting that these bones are respected, but the dead of Waterloo, (1815), were simply ground up to make bread after they had been in the ground long enough to have become skeletonized. Great video!!! Hello from Oklahoma, where there is no history.... sad face

[ethreagan]

Maybe a stupid question, but where do they get the bones to make repairs? are there just so many bones to begin with? or do they use "newer" bones?

[martijnkeisers]

Another great video!
I wish u and urs a wonderful Christmas, greetings from Amsterdam! 🎄🎄🎄

[stardustsparkles]

Thank you for an interesting and informative video. Have a good weekend.

[daveandgena]

This was a very welcome video! Thank you!

[arikathehuman]

This is awesome. I will definitely check it out when I visit Paris. Could you do more tours on more modern/contemporary art museums?

[mistermornevanderberg]

I have always wanted to see this part of Paris, but due to circumstances I don’t think I will ever make it. So thanks for this interesting video

[marie-sophieemilypatricawa]

As for the question if I would want that... All I say is Hallstatt in Austria a small mountain village where the cemetery is so small that after 25 yrs your time is up you will be dug up and placed in a small charnel house with an elaborately painted skull.... The skull bears your name dob and dod.... Granted not so much done any more but in the past common knowledge and I think it is awesome

[ashleywagner]

As Above So Below is the only horror movie I’ve ever watched that made me actually so sick to my stomach that I had to pause it and lay down. I love that movie but it was rough to watch.

[VampMedusa]

I can only hope to see this place before my end
And there is ALWAYS hope 🤘🏻