A Story In Paris: Paris Catacombs’ Unlikely Renaissance

It has become so popular that even off-season one might “find yourself waiting in line…even in the chilly offseason.”^[2] In short, what was once morbid curiosity has become routine tourism.

Post-COVID-19 travel has only amplified the boom. Paris welcomed roughly 47.5 million tourists in 2023, nearly back to its pre-pandemic zenith^[3], and the catacombs reopened in that surge. Local reporting now calls this “one of Paris’s top tourist attractions, and certainly its most morbid.”^[4]

For more information on A Story In Paris check out the production’s official page.

Recent renovations, budgeted at €5.5 million, are justified by crowds: the galleries “are designed to improve the experience for the 600,000 annual visitors.“^[5] In other words, visitor numbers have crept well beyond half a million.

Cultural Catalysts Driving Interest

Behind these numbers is the catacombs’ eerie allure. Their bones chronicle Paris’s past crises: overflowing medieval cemeteries and fear of plague, when millions of exhumed remains were moved underground. “The tunnels were created in the 18th century after diseases began to spread from Paris’ overflowing cemeteries,” and today “the remains of over six million people are housed there.”^[6]

Visitors today stroll through ossuaries of skulls and femurs that resemble a subterranean art gallery. It’s a spectacle that triggers a modern existential thrill: while Paris Syndrome afflicts some tourists, others embrace this macabre tour. As one writer quipped, a night with the catacombs’ skeletons promises to “spellbind with fascinating tales…guaranteed to produce nightmares.”^[7]

The spike in interest is readily visible online. Google Trends and keyword studies have flagged the catacombs in every category of travel buzz. A recent industry report notes that Paris ranks as one of Europe’s hottest Halloween destinations.^[8]

Visitors planning spooky adventures search for “Paris Catacombs tickets,” “guided tours,” and “skip-the-line” along with searches for 19th-century inscriptions and skull-pattern motifs. In October especially, catacomb-related searches routinely spike as Paris-based Halloween events and horror-film mentions kick in.^[9]

How Media Shapes the Hype

Horror movies and media set in the ossuary often trigger waves of online curiosity. The 2014 found-footage film As Above, So Below, shot in the Paris tunnels, turned the catacombs into a cinematic hellscape.^[10] In its wake, people began googling “Paris Catacombs,” hoping to feel the buzz.

A decade earlier, Airbnb staged a blockbuster PR stunt: in 2015 the platform rented out the catacombs for one lucky Halloween, offering two contest winners a night on a real bed in the bone halls.^[7] The contest made headlines worldwide, subtly reminding the public that Paris’s “sprawling tunnels filled with skulls and bones” are among the city’s most viral attractions.^[7]

More recently, the hit TV series Stranger Things with its pop-culture mantra of “the upside down” has drawn comparisons to the underworld. One young French explorer remarked that going into the Paris tunnels “is like the upside down from Stranger Things,” a quip that has surely trended on social media.^[11]

Seasonal tourism rhythms amplify interest further. Halloween events, All Saints’ Day pilgrimages, and gothic festivals spark bursts of searches. In summer 2023, when the Louvre and Eiffel Tower were packed, “Paris Catacombs” queries peaked on Google alongside searches for Paris nightlife and ghost tours. Tour buses and cruise ships now slot the ossuary onto summer schedules.

The Airbnb contest alone revealed public hunger: nearly 100,000 online applicants vied for two sleeping spots in 2015,^[12] and the auction fetched €350,000 to privatize the chambers.^[7]

The Family Tourist Ecosystem

This blend of media hype and holiday hype has created two very different webs of interest. On one hand is the family-tourist ecosystem: Google and guidebooks teem with practical queries about how to buy tickets, skip lines, bring children or wheelchairs, and more. Typical FAQs reflect this approach: “The visit typically takes 45 minutes…bring a jacket…tickets often sell out days in advance.” Parents and tourists talk about the “unforgettable underground experience” with concerns centered on safety and logistics.

Don’t forget to check out “A Story In Paris” Behind The Screenplay page for more information on the writing inspiration and process.

The Underground Cataphile Culture

In contrast, the underground ecosystem is whispered and subversive. Forums and chats (and TikTok’s darker corners) buzz with terms like “cataphiles,” “forbidden zone,” “secret manholes,” and even treasure-hunting. By necessity this world stays off search engines: official guides caution that only a tiny portion of the catacombs is “open to the public,” while “the rest is off-limits and illegal to access,” save for the true believers known as cataphiles.^[13]

“Cataphiles are Parisian urban explorers who illegally wander the Catacombs.”^[14] Sources estimate hundreds of locals slip in each week by hidden stairwells and sewer tunnels, about 300 Parisians a week by one journalistic reckoning,^[15] always risking fines or worse.

To that covert crowd, the ossuary is a party venue as much as a cemetery. In interviews cataphiles brag of bringing music, beer, even fondue into the gloom.^[16] One young explorer described the warm atmosphere: “Usually when you come across someone, there’s music…A trip down a manhole often includes playing music and drinking.”

Some carve little reminders like tricolor flags or graffiti, and hold “catasprint” events (underground cross-country races) where the goal is to never hit the surface or meet police.^[16][17] The juxtaposition is stark: while tourists queue in silence, the cataphile set stages concerts 20 meters under Paris.

Cultural Impact in Literature and Film

The catacombs’ themes bleed into literature and art. Paris authors have long mined the ossuary for inspiration; writers from Victor Hugo to Anne Rice have been drawn to its spooky network.^[18]

A striking modern echo comes from novelist Hugo Lunny. In A Story in Paris Lunny introduces Thomas Girard, a tormented artist who believes every photo in the tunnels steals part of his soul.^[19] Girard’s fear that “every photograph drains his essence and broadcasts it into the world”^[19] plays on 19th-century anxieties about death and image. It’s telling that even fictional horrors use the catacombs as a stage for modern nightmares.

Why Paris’ Dark Underworld Won’t Stop Pulling People In

The popularity of Paris’s catacombs isn’t a random fluke; it’s the product of a perfect storm of rebounding tourism and haunted fascination. On one side, families and casual travelers find the official tour an easy add-on to any Paris itinerary, aided by pre-paid tickets, audio guides, and plenty of travel tips online. On the other, a thrill-seeking underground culture thrives in these forbidden halls, shunning daylight life in favor of clandestine descent. Both regimes feed off cultural catalysts: festival seasons, viral media, or creepy contest giveaways.

So the catacombs stand as a mirror to our age. Their soaring visitor counts and search trends reflect how even the dead can become an attraction. As the city now sets out to renovate the tunnels for future generations,^[20] one wonders what will emerge. But if recent years are any guide, the answer seems sure: no matter how bright Paris shines above, its dark underworld will only keep pulling people in.

Broken English stuff:

The Underground City Beneath Paris: Inside the Cataphile Movement Paris’s Greatest Eviction: The Nightly Transfer of the Holy Innocents The Origins of Soul Theft Beneath the City of Light: The Secret History of Paris’s Catacombs Cataphiles of Paris: Exploring the 6 Million Buried Bones The Secret City Beneath Paris: Inside the World of the Cataphiles