Rosetta: The Catacombs

Vous êtes invités à ne rien toucher (you are invited to touch nothing)

"There they are," Shell said pedantically while pointing out the rather small stone building across the street from the Metro stop we'd just arrived at. I nodded knowingly as it had been she and I who'd scouted out the Catacombs entrance a few days prior. Meg however was grateful for the information as this would be her first time visiting the Catacombs. Having been to Paris several times, Meg was fairly familiar with the city but she was vaguely afraid of the Catacombs and thus had never before visited them.

We paid the 4 Euros for our tickets. "Vous n'avez pas de la monnaie?" (You don't have coins?) the cashier asked scornfully when I handed her my five Euro bill. This is a question I'd gotten used to being asked. In France they have 1 and 2 Euro coins (la monnaie) and they are usually easier to use then trying to break the bigger bills. However, since it is more convenient, I keep using the little 'monnaie' I have and consistently have to pay with bills in order to get more 'monnaie' as change. Usually not a big deal but in this case I received a bit of snobbery, as did Meg behind me in line. 

We gave our tickets to the ticket-taker, "Vous êtes d'où?" (Where are you from) he asked me. I have also become used to this question. As soon as you speak with an accent, people want to know where you are from. "Je suis americaine," (I'm American) I responded. "Non, pas americaine." (No, not American) This is a response I've received twice now and have a feeling I will get fairly often. I informed him I was from Italy originally because this is the answer he was looking for when he denied that I was from America due to my darker appearance. He became quite friendly and informed me that we were neighbors because he was from Tunisia. We told him to have a nice day and we entered the Catacombs.

The way down was a very narrow spiral stone staircase. It was worn down by many passages and you could feel the impressions in each unique stone step. We walked through hallway after hallway of stone tunnels. The walls oozed water and the atmosphere was quite literally dank. After several minutes of wandering through the 'combs we began to wonder when we were going to see bones or if this was all there was. There were plaques on the walls and a room with some pictures of dead people. Finally, after about 15 minutes of suspense, we came to a doorway that had a sign over it Arrête, c'est ici l'empire de la mort (Stop, it is here the empire of death). And then came rooms and rooms of bones.

The bones were obviously arranged with great care. It is said that there are 6 million people's bones included in the display. Stacks of tibias line the walkway interspersed with skulls all looking out at the stream of people walking through. In some rooms there are plaques with famous quotes about death and some rooms are gated off so no visitors can enter. This part of the Catacombs became damper and water dripped from the ceiling and made the floor wet and slippery and interspersed with puddles. The lighting was intermittent, we walked through very dim, creepy areas only to suddenly come into a patch of light that illuminated the skulls causing the smooth surface to shine in contrast to the shadowed holes of each crevice. The whole trip through took about an hour, which was good because we'd arrived exactly 1 hour before closing. We wound our way quietly back up a spiral stone stairway and out into the daylight once more. Through the unfamiliar glare of the sun we spotted the Catacomb gift store across the street.