In The Footsteps of Halloween – Paris Travel Edition

By Sylvia Bury

Paris is indeed such a lovely city. So beautiful, so cliché, and the city itself is so romantic. But this is Halloween. This is that scary moment once again and even Paris cannot escape from it.

Many history and secrets are hidden in the city for centuries. From Catacombes de Paris to Pere Lachaise Cemetery, I will take you with me for a walk in the footsteps of Halloween.

Catacombes de Paris

It might be a twist from your regular Paris city tours. Yet, Catacombs de Paris is the largest and the most visited underground ossuaries in the planet.

Dating back to the 18th century, disease spread among the Parisians due to poor burial procedures. To handle the health situation at that time, it was decided that the Parisians buried the dead in an old depleted quarries beneath the city.

Originally, the bones were just piled up, but as it became a major tourist attraction, the bones were tidied and arranged in neat displays, ready for some curious cameras.

Panthéon Paris

This imposing building is meant to be a church dedicated to Ste. Geneviève, back in the 18th century. King France Louis XV was sick and he pledged to build a church to honor the protector of the city of Paris, if he was cured. He did get well and kept his promise. The original architect never saw the Panthéon as he died 10 years before the completion. One of his students continued the work and had it completed after the French Revolution.

Now Panthéon Paris becomes a famous burial place. Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas can finally rest here in peace. The enlightenment philosopher Voltaire was not buried all in one piece. After he died, his brain and heart were taken out and boiled in alcohol to solidify them. The brain of Voltaire is kept at the Comédie Française. His heart was given to Napoleon III and is now kept at the Bibliothèque National. Both of the brain and the heart are sealed inside their wooden pedestrals.

Panthéon is no longer serving as a church. However, just next door to Panthéon, in the St-Etienne-du-Mont Church, we can find a finger bone belonging to Ste. Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris.

Père-Lachaise Cemetery

This is another dark and mysterious side of the City of Light, Père-Lachaise cemetery. Here, many influential characters of the history are buried, including hundreds of writers, artists and politicians. Most of them have their final resting place in one piece.

Famed Polish composer Frédéric Chopin is another exception. He requested that his body be opened after death, as he didn’t want to be buried alive so he wanted to make sure that he wasn’t. He also gruesomely demanded that his heart be returned to Warsaw, Poland.

So after his death, Chopin's sister took his heart in a bottle of cognac, hid it under her cloak to avoid any questions from the customs officers. She successfully smuggled Chopin’s heart and buried it beneath a small monument in the Holy Cross Church in Warsaw. The Nazis stole the heart during WWII, however they gave it back after the war.

In the spirit of all the dead bones, the brains, and the hearts,
Happy Spooky Halloween!

All photos are royalty-free images from Pixabay