The site, located under Denfert-Rochereau square (14th arrondissement), a full display this Tuesday afternoon. Among its thousands of daily visitors, it welcomes “many foreign tourists” and “some people try their luck at the ticket office in vain, hoping for online reservations,” a reception agent told AFP.
– Fourteen degrees –
Once inside the famous site, built in ancient underground careers transformed in the 18th century to turn into a municipal ossuary, in addition to the darkness, bones and drops of water falling from the ceiling, it is the room temperature that grabs the visitor. Fourteen degrees, it is an argument for some for some, a good surprise for others.
“With this warmth, it is a perfect day to descend 20 meters underground”, jokes Carl, 77, who does not wish to give his family name either. The German retiree visiting Paris “favors closed places” like this where freshness “does not detract from the experience of being in this particular place”.
A little further, in the long stone corridor weakly illuminated by a row of wall lamps, Nicholas, 42, is delighted “to have a slightly fresher place where to go” in the middle of August.
“It is a place that tourists like and really want to visit. Whether it is beautiful or rains, there are always a lot of people,” observes another reception agent at the end of the course.
After the effervescence of summer, the catacombs will close their doors to the general public for several months from the fall of 2025 for major maintenance and conservation work, started in 2023 and which must spread until spring 2026. The course must be modernized and a new scenography is planned.
© 2025 AFP Internet. All reserved reproduction and representation rights. All the information reproduced in this section (dispatches, photos, logos) is protected by intellectual property rights held by l’Afp Internet. Consequently, none of this information can be reproduced, modified, rebroadcast, translated, exploited commercially or reused in any way whatsoever without the prior written agreement of l’Afp Internet.