What Lies Beneath: Skip-the-Line Paris Catacombs Tour with VIP Access

While Paris is known for its art, fashion, culture and romance, there is a dark secret buried under its streets. The Catacombs of Paris are one of the largest in the world and houses over 6 million bones. Descend 20 metres below the city with your guide and unravel the history of how the 200 miles of tunnel were the answer to Paris’ rising problem of overcrowded cemeteries.

This Catacombs tour gives you VIP access to the tunnels and lets you dodge past the queues and enter the underground world of the dead. As you step into the macabre place, the tone is set when you will pass under the sign which reads, “Arrete, C'est Ici L'Empire De La Mort" (Stop. Here is the Empire of Death). Surrounded by bones and skulls arranged in a set pattern and design, your guide will let you to places that are closed for the general public. Follow in the footsteps of 18th and 19th century French royals and learn about the circumstances that led to the creation of the Catacombs between 1780 and 1814. During the French revolution, few of its famous (and infamous) faces were directly buried in the catacomb’s ossuaries like Jean-Paul Marat and Maximilien de Robespierre.

Also, ask the guide to tell you a thing or two about how these tunnels were used during the World War II by the members of the French Resistance as well as the Nazis. And, to grow mushrooms!