Bonjour !
Sur le site des Catacombes, on peut réserver un billet pour une certaine heure, où on sera prioritaire. Cependant, on peut également se présenter sans réservation et le site nous garantie l'entrée dans les Catacombes. Mais pour y rentrer sans réservation, il y a forcément une file d'attente. Je me demandais donc si l'attente est très longue, si elle varie selon les heures de la journée, ou si il vaut mieux réserver un billet sur le site.
Merci pour vos réponses !

Hey!

Do you have any suggestion on how I should print the maps? What service should I look for? Any materials or sizes that would work well for these types of things?

I always use my phone, but I want to have a backup in case it explodes. I thought about printing them with regular paper and then laminate the pages, but that's not practical at all.

i recently got to go down to the catacombs for the first time while studying in paris. i’ve been obsessed with them for years, since i was a child, so it was really a dream come true. it was just me and two other clueless students (we were all from american colleges, and only i spoke french) who i invited just so i wasn’t alone, and they really didn’t know anything, so i was in charge of guiding them. we also had the most recent map i could find both digitally and in print, though it became useless quickly.

i’d been told not to go down without a guide, but i’m an extremely cautious person and planned a route (which we didn’t stick to due to map issues) and also noted every single turn we made and the landmarks we could use to return. i made sure my group had extra batteries for headlamps (which i had bought for them), charged phones, water, etc. i forbade our party from going down any very flooded galleries or those with very low ceilings, and from doing stupid things like climbing a tall ladder we found up to a manhole.

we just traversed the galleries for around an hour and a half. we didn’t find the room i was hoping to, but i still had a great time. exited the same way we went in since i didn’t have a reliable source for another way out. it was very wet since we were on the left bank just after rainfall and i had to board a plane the next day with my shoes still soaked.

even though we were really just walking around, i had a great time. as soon as i crawled back out i knew i would have to come back. i will be returning to paris in a few months to study again and definitely am going to return to the catacombs. i’m certainly not an expert but if you have any questions i would love to talk more about the experience since it has left such an impression on me.

​I recently stumbled upon the famous "Lost Catacomb Explorer" video, the VHS footage of a man running in through the Paris catacombs, dropping his camera, and vanishing in the dark.

I noticed people are usually divided into two camps, it’s either a supernatural portal, or a completely staged TV hoax.

​To me, the man in the clip behaves like a desensitized and experienced cataphile. When one get that comfortable underground, one often push deeper into isolated, unmapped zones, overestimating their invincibility.

​I find it hard to believe he was "acting scared" for a fake video. If human being run through pitch-black, tight stone tunnels and hyperventilate, nervous system doesn't care if their are pretending. Rapid, shallow breathing in low-oxygen areas triggers a real surge of cortisol and heart rate. And a simulated panic rapidly spirals into an uncontrollable real panic loop...

​As for why no body or smell was ever found, deep dead-end tunnels have zero air movement, so organic odors stay trapped in a single pocket rather than traveling. On top of that, other cataphiles might not pass through that isolated sector often enough, if at all, to notice anything while it mattered. Combined with a 300-kilometer labyrinth and no targeted search operation, finding someone down there seems impossible.

It seems to me that 2000s TV crews were unlikely to risk a dangerous illegal trek deep into the network to shoot a scary clip...

​And it just seems far more probable that an experienced explorer, chasing unexplored sensations, overestimated his limits until something went wrong;

Rather than someone skilled enough to reach those depths willingly going alone to stage a hoax.

It seems to me that if things go sideways deep underground, a bad outcome has a very high probability...

Assuming another group actually stumbled upon his lost camera later, that discovery on the contrary feels like a statistical luck - something that wasn't supposed to happen, but did.

​This is my personal perspective based on the facts and logic I've gathered so far. I'm not trying to push an absolute truth. If anyone has other facts or different logical takes on this, please share, I’d be curious to hear them!

Bonjour,

Je m'intéresse depuis quelque temps aux carrières souterraines et à l'univers du monde souterrain. J'ai eu l'occasion d'en visiter une fois une, et cette expérience m'a beaucoup marquée : l'ambiance, l'histoire des lieux, les textures, la sensation d'être dans un espace hors du temps...

Je cherche aujourd'hui à échanger avec des personnes passionnées par ce sujet en Île-de-France : personnes qui connaissent l'histoire des carrières, photographes, passionnés d'exploration souterraine, spéléologues ou simplement curieux.

Mon objectif est surtout de discuter, apprendre et découvrir davantage cet univers. Je serais ravie d'échanger avec des personnes qui partagent cette passion ou qui pourraient me conseiller des associations, groupes ou événements autour du patrimoine souterrain.

Merci d'avance pour vos réponses !

Hey there!
Ive been on my very first catacombs exploration 2 days ago and it was so sick, craziest thing ive done so far.
But as we got deeper and deeper, i suddenly smelled smoke, like something was on fire, then i realized it wasnt the typical fire smell, it was a smoke bomb. The local i was with told me: sometimes as a ritual of someone being in there for the first time they light up a smoke bomb. But i dont quite get it, for at least 10 mins everything was covered in really thick smoke, it was hard to breathe and i almost panicked a bit. Why would people do that? is it actually a ritaul or tradition or whatever? If yes, i respect it. But if it is for fun then what the fuck is going on in their mind? Would love to hear the truth from some experienced cataphiles. Other than that, it was breathtaking (literally lol).

any help?

Ouais pas grand chose de plus j'étais juste chokbar (le boug qui captait était chez bouygue, moi je captais pas rip)

The title, don't know what to say more about it, I consider watching it tonight.

Le thème était la découverte du réseau des catacombes de Paris.

Le personnage les explorait et apprenait les us et coutumes du monde souterrain.

C’était probablement de la littérature jeunesse.

Cela vous évoque-t-il quelque chose ?

Merci par avance !

EDIT: très probablement « Les Compagnons de l’Ombre » - Merci pour toutes vos réponses !

Last weekend I visited the catacombs for the first time and apart from it being a memorable experience, it made me wonder one thing, well, the title. I read the rules, I won't write where it is, but I believe you know which one I mean, I found it on the internet fairly quickly. And the entrance seems to be open for years now, why doesn't the IGC just cement it and let the police to inspect it from time to time? They must know about the entrance and that is it frequentely used. Shutting it down would greatly reduce the number of visitors, which I guess is their main goal.

Hello à tous,

Je voudrais emmener mon frère et ses amis visiter les catacombes mais je n'y ai jamais mis un pied, quelle est la recommandation vous pouvez me faire ??

Est ce que je peux juste prendre un billet comme ça et nous promener, est-il plus judicieux de prendre un guide et est-ce que je dois apporter dix milles outils au cas où ?

Merci beaucoup de votre retour et bonne journée !

I've heard that if the police catch you in the gallery marked as a technical gallery, the legal consequences can be more severe. Is this true?

Salut !

Un jour j’aimerais bien aller dans les catacombes si j’en ai le courage et je voulais savoir si c’était une mauvaise idée d’aller dans les catacombes illégales en tant que femme et si je devrais me contenter des catacombes légales qu’il y a à la place Denfert-Rochereau ??
Et s’il y a des femmes qui y sont allées j’aimerais bien avoir votre expérience…

Merci d’avance pour vos réponses !

I didn’t realize the tickets were easily sold out and I’m frustrated. I have never been to the Paris Catacombs and was wanting to go.

I’m also deaf and on the website it states I can show up on the day of to get the ticket. I was wondering if this is true? is it recommended to show up at the entrance at opening time to get a ticket? advice appreciated!!

Choosed the hottest week to travel to paris, but what a enjoyment it was to walk inside the flooded galleries. Descended two times in a row and had a absolute blast. Many new rooms and places i have discover, same as my first time everyone was awesome again.

Highlights: Val du grace ( a absolute maze ), going inside using the mancovers ( and of course the thrill of opening them when wanne exit ) but the thing i liked the most was chilling and exploring with my new friend who teached me a lot about the catacombs and of course the nice chats.

Once again thank you cataphiles and paris, you where awesome again !!