vanillanostalgia

Hello there, I hope you have/had a great weekend!

Mine was brilliant, but I have to warn you… the total opposite of glamorous.

I spent my saturday night in the catacombs of Paris… (this is the point where my Mum gets a heart attack… in case you are reading this  Mum, please continue reading and remember I´m safe and had brunch this morning, lol)

Where do I start…

Well, first of all I want to remind everyone that going in by yourself is NOT a good idea, and that we (a group of 12 people) had 2 guides that knew the catacombs by heart because they have been going down at least once a week for years AND had a map just in case… and had given us a list of things to bring along.

So much for the warning.

I think the best way to explain this incredible experience is to tell you everything chronologically:

First we went down a shaft, but we had to hurry because we were quite a bunch of people and… well… you are supposed to be descrete. The shaft was about 20m deep and had and iron ladder to climb down. When everybody was down, we started entering the catacombs. Our guide choose his path well (hello irony, but I think he really did it on purpose) because we had to walk through knee high water. So even with gum boots you were just soaked. The “Cataphiles” (those who go down often) were very equiped and wore fishing trousers or whatever the name is. Anyway point:         They were dry!

But who cares, it was fun and it was a challenge. I was just grateful they had told me to bring a headlamp (very useful… especially if you have to pee).  But some “Cataphiles” are even better equiped (or not) and have one of those:

It was great fun to walk along the passages and corridors. At one point you go around the corner and you end up in a tiny room where someone had sculpted a castle and gargoyles!!! And the best thing is: You meet other people. Seriously, at the end of our trip we ended up with 30 people!

We went to several rooms but the best ones didn´t really have an easy access, so if you are claustrophobic… better     don´t go there

At one point my frined Caroline took of her shoes to get rid of her wet socks.. and this is what happened: no kidding, they were smoking!!!

But our favorite room was the last one, where we spent most of the everning. It was huge and looked actually like a bar. All the walls were painted on and it took me a lot of time to take it all in.

I must say, it was really impressive. Did you know that the catacombs go along for about 300km underneath Paris? And there are people who go down there regularly (some of them even for over 20 years and not even creepy!)

Beside the fact that every word down there starts with “cata” you must know that there is a whole “cata-code”. First of all,  you are nice and respectful to everyone you meet (most of them have known each other for years and you are a “tourist”), second you do clean up after you. The catacombs are increadibly clean  because nobody ever leaves anything behind. There is no garbage whatsoever and once a month all the cataphiles go down there for a “cataclean”.

Sometimes they organize huge parties in there with live gigs and sound…

Anyway, at the end of the night we were all wet, covered in mud, smelling damp… but happy. Because… well, did you ever dream of a place where it´s calm, people are nice and time seems to stay still…?

That´s there.

Tags: catacombs, cataphile, Paris, relax, Underworld