Paris Catacombs Tickets

The entrance at Place Denfert-Rochereau

The Catacombs are entered from a small green pavilion on Place Denfert-Rochereau in the 14th arrondissement, next to one of the old toll houses built before the French Revolution. From here you descend a narrow spiral staircase of about one hundred and thirty steps to a depth of roughly twenty metres, leaving the noise of Paris behind.

If you are searching for Paris Catacombs tickets or how to get to the Paris Catacombs, take metro line 4 or 6 or the RER B to Denfert-Rochereau, a short walk from the entrance. Because the ticket is timed, arrive a little before your slot; Paris Catacombs opening hours change through the year and are closed on some days.

The old quarry tunnels beneath Paris

Long before the bones arrived, these tunnels were limestone quarries that supplied the stone used to build medieval and modern Paris. Over the centuries the workings grew into hundreds of kilometres of galleries, and in the 1770s the streets above began to collapse into them, which led the authorities to reinforce the quarries and to start inspecting them.

The first part of the route follows these low, cool passages, past carved inscriptions and old markings left by quarry inspectors. Your audio guide explains what you are looking at, and the temperature stays around fourteen degrees all year, so a warm layer is a good idea even in summer.

The ossuary: how Paris moved its dead underground

By the late eighteenth century the cemeteries of Paris were overcrowded, and the largest, the Holy Innocents cemetery, had become a health problem for the neighbourhood. From 1786 the bones were moved by night to the empty quarries, and over the following decades they were stacked into the walls, crosses and patterns you see today.

A stone lintel warns visitors that they are entering the empire of death, and beyond it the walls of skulls and long bones run for hundreds of metres. It is quiet, atmospheric and moving rather than frightening, and the guide gives context on why the site became a place of reflection as well as storage.

Is the Paris Catacombs tour worth it? Planning your visit

Is the Paris Catacombs tour worth it? For travellers who like history, urban stories and unusual places, yes: it is one of the most distinctive things to do in Paris and quite unlike a museum. You walk about two kilometres in roughly an hour, with a stair climb to finish, so the visit is best for people in reasonable health.

The best time to visit the Paris Catacombs is early in the day or on a weekday, when it is calmer. There are no lifts, bathrooms or lockers, and large bags are not allowed, so travel light. Because the temperature is constant, the Catacombs also make a good escape from very hot or rainy weather.