This is the phrase carved into the doorway that you pass under as you enter the part of Paris's vast underground tunnel network that houses the bones of 6 million Parisians. It translates to "Stop! Here is the empire of the dead". You pass through (after some group photos courtesy of the friendly security guard), and the walls are lined with bones. At that point, it's mostly tibias, punctuated with the occasional row of skulls. The Catacombs, housed in a portion of Paris's sprawling underground quarry, are filled floor to ceiling with bones, excepting the space reserved for morbid warnings about death's proximity, and markers denoting the cemeteries where the bones were first put to rest. The ceilings drip, and the gray clay of the floors get your shoes all dirty, but it's amazing, and fascinating, and absolutely worth the long long line. Added bonus: in a land of no candy corn, it makes it feel like Halloween.
note: the Catacombs are not ideal for photo-taking
This castle was carved into the walls of the quarry. The man who carved it died down here when the ceiling fell in.
A "very romantic spot" according to the guard. If you can't see, the skulls were arranged to make a heart shape..
"At death, one leaves everything"
*selfie with the skull courtesy of Malika
