A Love Letter to the Lost World of the Parisian Pneumatic Post

Years before the Paris Métro opened, there was another subterranean transport system rattling away beneath the city streets. Instead of messages floating around in the internet ether of apps and social networks, if you wanted to send a note to someone in your city in the 19th century, you tube. A network of sealed lines…

Our Zoom Date with a Paris Catacombs Explorer

Welcome to our Q&A with the fabulously entertaining Alexander J.E. Bradley – an artist and urban explorer whose mastery of the Paris catacombs has led us down many a rabbit hole (you may recall our trip to his underground catacombs cinema to watch The Rocky Horror Picture Show one Halloween). If you missed the live…

The Last Mushroom Farms of the Paris Catacombs

Ever tried a ‘champignon de Paris‘? The real one– cultivated in abundance and almost exclusively once upon a time in the catacombs of Paris? Having lost its roots, more commonly known to the rest of the world today as a ‘button mushroom’, which we all enjoy on occasion with our meals, perhaps stirred into a risotto; the real champignon…

The Parisian Mushroom Catacombs

In a fresh episode of our Don’t Be a Tourist: Mini Bites series, I venture underground on a quest to find one a gastronomic legend in the Parisian catacombs … Catch up with the rest of the series here Hungry for more Paris? The updated edition of Don’t Be a Tourist in Paris is now available. Or become…

Book your Bedroom in the Paris Catacombs on Halloween Night

So I’ve given you tips on how to explore the catacombs, party in the catacombs, farm organic mushrooms in the catacombs and even swim in the catacombs, but would you dare to sleep in the Parisian catacombs? Picture a fluffy white duvet, expertly plumped pillows, surrounded by candlelight … and six million human skeletons. Yup, it’s the latest…

The Secret Swimming Pools of the Paris Catacombs

It felt like the pavements of Paris could have melted these past few days. The city’s swimming pools were overflowing with splashing bodies and escape from the heat seemed futile. But there is one place, beneath the baking pavements, where only few will venture and plunge into the cool waters of the underworld. So let’s follow them…

A Walk along the Paris inner city Railway, abandoned since 1934

I spent my Saturday afternoon, avoiding the Parisian summer crowds and tiptoeing along the train tracks of the “Little Belt” railroad (La Petite Ceinture), a surviving relic of a bygone era, closed since 1934; open for pleasant summer strolls if you look hard enough for a way in … Built in 1862, the Petite Ceinture…

Penetrating the Paris Catacombs: Level One

We were told to dress in inconspicuous clothing, wear sturdy boots and gloves, bring food supplies, an ID in case of arrest and a rosary in case of the unimaginable. We met our host to the underworld whose name will remain Mr. X, at a location I can’t reveal. And down the rabbit hole we went … As…

The Vault

The Paris Motorcycle Cave, Secret of the Seine

On the banks of the Seine in the heart of Paris, with a front row seat to some of the city’s most beautiful landmarks and neoclassical architecture, there’s an unexpected little badass secret hiding in plain sight. Take a stroll alongside the charming houseboats next to the Pont de la Concorde, admire the view of the Eiffel Tower…

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200 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Go Down to the Basement in Paris

Underneath the product aisles of a well-known Monoprix supermarket branch in central Paris, where I’ve often popped into myself to pick up a bottle of wine and some olives before attending parties nearby, the skeletons of up to 200 lost souls have been discovered buried in a mass grave. For some of us reading of course, this may very…