Paris Catacombs Tours | Guided Tour of the Mysterious Catacombs

Paris is deeply rooted in history, art, culture, romance, and glamour. A few popular attractions that usually come to mind when we think of the City of Love are the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum, and the Notre Dame de Paris, but there is so much more to Paris than these monuments.

A creepy, eerie, and open graveyard 20 meters under the city, the Paris Catacombs is your best bet if you’re looking for an offbeat, out-of-the-box experience to remember forever. The Catacombs are home to the remains and graves of over 6 million Parisians dating back to the 1700s. Learn more about this quirky attraction on a Paris Catacombs private tour! Here’s what you should know.

What to expect on a Paris Catacombs private tour?

Entrance

Your experience will begin at an unassuming black gate at the Paris Catacombs entrance; it can be easily identified with long waiting lines. Meet your tour guide here who will take you to the starting point of the tour.

Underground Experience

On entering, you’ll go down 131 steps, about 20 meters under the streets of Paris, into a maze of narrow corridors, stone sculpture galleries, and a museum, before you reach the main area. The entrance is signified by a warning carved into the door lintel that reads ‘Arrête! C’est ici L’empire de la Mort’, meaning ‘Stop! This is the empire of the dead.'

Once inside the Catacombs, the first thing that visitors usually notice is a peculiar smell that lingers in the air. The smell has been described by some as a dusty scent that will remind you of old stone churches, but it can be attributed to the contents of the Catacombs. 

While the number of skulls and bones on display is quite striking, what mostly leaves visitors gawking are the patterns in which the skeletal remains of millions of Parisians have been arranged. Skulls and femur bones can be found piled into towers, crosses, and symmetrical patterns. These ornately designed ‘objects of curiosity’ are over 6 feet high and on all sides of the winding paths in the tunnels. 

Exit

The Catacombs’ entry and exit are carefully monitored to not allow more than 200 visitors inside the tunnels at any given time. This lets you explore the Catacombs in peace. There’ll be times when you find yourself alone, sharing space with only the dead without too many visitors around you. While the entry to the Catacombs is located on 1 Avenue du Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy, visitors climb up about 112 steps and exit around 500 meters away at Rue Rémy Dumoncel. 

Visitor tips

• Make sure you book your tickets online and early on.
• Wear comfortable shoes because you’ll have to do quite a bit of walking and climbing.
• It is advisable to carry sweaters or warm clothes since the temperature below is lower than what you generally experience or are used to outside.
• Photography is allowed but we wouldn’t recommend flash photography or using tripods.
• Visit early morning or late evening to avoid huge crowds, preferably on weekdays.
• The Paris Catacombs are not wheelchair accessible. The graveyard is narrow and dimly lit with no elevators.
• You can take a car, metro, RER, or bus to reach the location.