Citation :The WALL STREET JOURNAL EUROPE
LEISURE & ARTS
FRIDAY - SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31 - NOVEMBER 1, 1997 11
In the City of the Dead
By ROSE Ms a.tr BURKE
Paris
« Stop! Beyond Here is the Empire of the Dead »
Thus it is written above the portal leading into the Parisian catacombs, ancient underground quarries that, starting in the 1Sth century, became the repository of the bones of more than six million people. Today, by day, just a small section is open to the public and attracts its share of tourists. But by night the forbidden parts attract hundreds of cataphiles, curious nocturnal creatures who love to explore the 100 miles of otherworldly chambers and tunnels found mostly on the Left Bank.
Marc, a computer technician who goes by the underground name "Dannett_" first visited the catacombs four years ago. "There are areas that are really beautiful," he says, "others surprising. some full of history." When the catacombs were first created, French authorities emptied bulging Parisian graveyards into the quarries pell-mell. But under Napoleon, the catacombs were consolidated and some parts were decorated, with altars and religions epitaphs and with skulls and tibias artfully stacked to form walls and columns.
Marcâs last descent this summer .attracted about 30 people for a kind of treasure hunt., "The goal was to solve a series of riddles." he explains_ "Each. riddle led to the location of a letter. Once ail the letters were found, it was possible »te figure out the name of a place in the quarries where the treasure (an artificial skull) was hidden." The skull represented that of the unfortunate Philibert Aspairt, a legendary cataphile who lest his way and died in the catacombs in 1793.
It's not all good, clean cerebral fun, however. Some cataphiles complain about big parties of hundreds of participants who leave garbage and graffiti in their wake. According to history and legend, this sort of macabre merrymaking is nothing new. In the 18th century, the catacombs were the perfect hideout for thieves and a novel venue for the nobility's dinner parties and picnics. During World War II, the French Resistance vent truly underground; for their part, the Nazis used the quarries as bunkers.
For some latter-day cataphiles, the attraction of the underground is simply one of discovery, of places and people. Virginie ("Peter Pan") met her husband, Frank ("H2O' ), in the catacombs in 1992. But she credits technology for making the match. At that time, cataphiles organized their trips via a page on France's Minitel computer system. (Today Virginie and Frank plan their trips through a private e-mail List.) When they first met, Virginie says she and Frank used to go down under every weekendâpartly because it was a cheap date_
Others are no doubt attracted to this kind of urban caving by ifs illegality. The quarries in Parts have been off-Limits by prefectural order since 1955. Ta enforce the law, Paris created an underground police `force called ERIC (for Quarry Search and Intervention Team).Based on its patrols, ERIC estimates that 5000 to 8000 people (mainly men in their 20s) made descents lest year, compared with about double that number in previous years.
The cataphile life has its own customs, lore and language. (A tourist is a "first-timer") One must choose a pseudonyrn,
learn the history and legends, know the routes, and have the right equipment (helmet with lamp. acetylene lantern, waterproof boots)- The fully comrnitted spread the word through illustrated fliers or tracts that are distributed and collected underground, or through stories and sites in books or on the Internet.
Marc has an Internet site (in English and French) heavy on history, but also with printable mails of the catacombs (http: //www. France-cybermedia.com/kata/ ). Cataphile Emmanuel Gabily has filled his own Web pages with beautiful black-and-white photos of underground quarries in Paris and the suburbs (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www">http://www</a><!-- m -->. lapoubelle.com/kta). For practical tips and lore, see the bilingual site Les Catacombes de Paris (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://mygale.org/11/">http://mygale.org/11/</a><!-- m --> houze/).
Long before the Internet, there were still cataphiles, though an earlier generation called them. "zlards." Alain Gribel. a,k.a. Le Grib. now age 50, set down his real and fictional experiences in a self-published book, which he sells in his locksmith shop, not far from one of the oldest entrances to the catacombs -La Tombe Issoire- now closed. And Mr. Gribel has made his mark in another way: by rnounting in the catacombs a stone-carved street sign, "Rue Z1ard, Côté Sud"
The cataphile life in Paris at least, probably has seen its heyday_ For security reasons, in the 'past two years the police have sealed off all but a few of the entrances to the city's quarries and catacombs- For some cataphiles, that's disheartening; for others, a mere challenge. Mr. Gabily, who now prefers the subterranean quarries in the suburbs, is more than content to take his love of the underground out of town.
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