Vandals Dare To Disturb Paris Catacombs, Awaken Curse?

Where: 1, avenue du Colonel-Rol-Tanguy, Paris, France

September 29, 2009 at 11:33 AM | by egw | Comments (0)

Just ahead of Halloween, a creepy disturbance shutters one of Paris' most morbid destinations. Now tourists won't have the treat of walking among the 14th-century dead while city officials find the grave-raiser.

A tourist destination dating back to the 19th century, the Paris Catacombs, resting place of French Revolution figures like Georges Danton, contains bones dating back to the 14th century. Some 300,000 visitors a year trek out to the 14th arrondissement to check out the remains of more than 6 million Parisians, until earlier this month when an unknown number of vandals tipped over several stacks of those remains, making the path through the tunnels impassible.

According to an article in Le Parisien, the assailants who entered the catacombs the night of September 11th did so without forcing the door, suggesting they used one of the archaic tunnels under the city that once led to the bone chamber. Without apparent motive, the director of the Carnavalet museum (which runs the catacombs) can't speculate on how long they will be closed.

Visitors who had planned their trip around the bones of this tourist stop can catch a glimpse of what they're missing in a French movie just arrived stateside called "Paris," in which a character has a panic attack while filming a documentary down below.

Related Stories:
· Paris catacombs closed to public due to vandalism [Associated Press via Google]
· Les catacombs vandalisees [Le Parisien]
· Hearts And Bones: Seeing Skulls in the Czech Republic [Jaunted]
· New Tate Britain Exhibition Is Tres Derivative [Jaunted]

[Photo: albany_tim]

Jaunted

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