Paris Catacombs

Straight out of the gate I have to mention the most important piece of information you need to know before visiting the Catacombs in Paris. The lenght of time it takes for you to enter will be the main factor in whether or not you decide to make the effort of going. We went on a Sunday and we ended up in line for roughly 2 hours. We arrived just as the Catacombs opened at 10am (It opens everyday at 10am) and the queue was already enormous. We went the previous day (a Saturday) and the queue was pretty much exactly the same size.

The weather will also be a huge factor. We got lucky as it was a nice day, even if it was chilly in the shade. If the weather is bad at all I would not reccommend going as there is not a lot of a shelter in the area. Bad weather might also scare people off so maybe it might actually shorten the line a lot. The main reason for the long line is the fact that a maximum of 200 people are allowed in the Catacombs at any one time.

Price-wise it is pretty cheap. It is €8 for a concession ticket and €10 if you don't have your student card with you. Whether that price is worth a 2 hour wait for 30-45 mins of actual time spent in the Catacombs is up to you. You actually cover around 2km underground inside the catacombs. You don't feel that you have walked that long as your surroundings will keep you distracted the whole time. It takes a little time to reach the actual Ossuray area of the Catacombs but once you get there you will be amazed.

The walls of skulls and bones are some of the most amazing things I have ever seen. They are carefully stacked in an amazing pattern with rows of skulls in between piles and piles of leg bones. How they managed to get everything to sit so perfectly without any glue is something I can't get my head around. The skulls are in different states of disrepair with some skulls missing almost all of their face. I wondered how many actual skulls were in the catacombs in total and how all of these people died. It is a really amazing experience to be surrounded by this many dead people all in one place.

I'm not sure if it really was worth a 2 hour wait but I'm glad that I visited the Catacombs in the end. There is nothing like it anywhere and it was one of the coolest places I've ever seen. It's up to you whether or not you want to invest 3+ hours of your time in Paris to see it.