Hôtel of Cadran: your hotel near the catacombs of Paris

It is easy to find a hotel establishment in Paris, but if you have chosen to visit the largest underground ossuary in the world in the best conditions, choose the Hotel du Cadran, with quick and easy access to the Catacombs of the capital.

The catacombs of Paris: visit the largest ossuary in the world.

You should know that for conservation reasons, but also for security reasons, the maximum number of people allowed per visit is 200. There are therefore often large queues.

To avoid them, it is therefore preferable to be among the first on the scene. So will you tell me, what is the best hotel in Paris to visit the Catacombs and which is the best located to be there as soon as it opens?

The Hotel du Cadran in Paris 7 is an excellent choice given its geographical location with very good public transport services.

The Catacombs of Paris: the largest underground ossuary in the world.

When we talk about the City of Light, we most frequently and rightly associate it with the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Louvre Museum, the Champs-Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe or even the Luxembourg Gardens. .

That said, a number of other sites deserve our attention, and, because of their uniqueness, this is obviously the case with the catacombs of Paris.

The entrance to the Catacombs is accessible from Place Denfert-Rochereau. The visit lasts about an hour and takes you through approximately one and a half kilometers of underground galleries.

You first discover the neo-classical Ledoux pavilion to begin your visit. It is a remnant of the old barrier of Hell delimiting at the time the area in which it was possible to build.

Then, after descending more than a hundred steps, you are plunged twenty meters deep and you enter a completely different universe. Walls of bones of several million Parisians stand before you.

It was public health reasons related to cemeteries that forced the authorities to transfer their contents to this underground ossuary at the end of the 18th century. Here you are discovering this largest deposit of bones in the heart of these ancient underground quarries.

4 good reasons to discover the Catacombs of Paris.

The first evacuations of bones took place from 1785 to 1787, first affecting the cemetery of the Innocents, the largest in the capital, previously condemned to closure in 1780.

Following these events, the history of the Catacombs of Paris begins in 1787, the year in which the first visitor was able to discover them, in private, because at that time, these underground galleries of old quarries were not yet accessible to the public. greater number.

It is from 1806 that the first visits open to the public are organized on certain specific dates, and only for a privileged few. Over time, the number of visits increases and adjustments are made. Regularly closed, in the end, the Catacombs always end up opening again.

For the record, electricity was installed there in 1983, and until 1972 visits were made by candlelight. The Paris Catacombs will then be restored in 2017 with new facilities allowing much better management of visitor flows, in particular thanks to the development of a new exit.

For everyone’s hygiene and comfort, sanitary facilities are also being added.

The Catacombs ossuary.

Before its opening to the public in 1809, it was transformed into a place according to a museographic and monumental vision of Inspector Héricart de Thury.

The bones, which were previously left loose, are meticulously organized into walls, modeled on the hagues of quarrymen. The rows of shins alternate on the front with those of skulls and, behind the facings, the remaining bones are piled up.

Masonry monuments of ancient and Egyptian style are built on the route, with forms of Doric pillars, altars, cippus or even tombs. Names inspired by the religious or romantic literature of Antiquity are given to certain places, for example the sarcophagus of the Lacrymatory, the fountain of the Samaritan woman or the sepulchral lamp.

Architecture of the Catacombs.

It is undoubtedly the most ambitious architectural and urban project of the Old Regime. It was the architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux who drew up the plans for this barrier, known as “Hell”.

In March 1785, he planned two symmetrical pavilions of rectangular plan, located opposite each side of the road to Orléans. It takes up the idea of ​​the propylaea of ​​ancient Greece, a kind of monumental doors or vestibules that delimited the entrance to a sanctuary.

Easily accessible :

• RER B.
• Metro: 4 and 6.
• Buses: 38 and 68.
• Bike: station N° 14005, 2 avenue René-Coty, 75014 Paris.
• Paid parking: 83 bd Saint-Jacques, 75014 Paris.

The entrance to the Catacombs is at 1, avenue du Colonel Henri Rol-Tanguy (place Denfert-Rochereau), Paris 14th. The exit is at 21 bis, avenue René-Coty, Paris 14th.

Find a hotel in Paris near the Catacombs.

If you have chosen to come and visit the Catacombs of Paris, booking a hotel in Paris 7 is a good idea, because the 7th arrondissement is extremely well served by public transport: buses 80, 92 and 69, metro line 8 de Paris, among others, easily serve the emblematic places of the capital.

Choosing a hotel in Paris just twenty minutes from the Catacombs allows you to arrive early on the site to begin your visit and thus avoid long queues.