When fantasizing about the famous city of Paris, one may relate to its magnificent glow, unshared fame and images of romantic couples sipping coffee whilst inspecting the outstanding view of the monumental Eiffel Tower. These trivial thoughts of false display may easily be replaced when reality snaps into the picture by revealing the true nature of the city as well as its surroundings and haunting mysteries.
The realm of ‘The City of Lovers’ covers deep origins of history stretching and covering to near infinite lengths, unfolding some major occurrences taking place frequently today. Under the glaring layer of nourishing shine lies a considerably different aspect of the city- a site for continuous paranormal activities. Ghost sightings and unnatural experiences have been reported from all over Paris and no scientific proof or explanation has ever been made to support the falsity. So the question is: do these paranormal activities really hold a solid base?
Ghost Tour in Paris
Well known to the locals, there are some easily accessible sites to glimpse the mystery, each one of them connected to an abundant history brimming with famous and infamous characters. One of them include the inspiring theater, Place de l`Opera, housing its lurking spirits by recent legends and reported sightings of the apparition of a devastated old woman roaming through the streets who has, according to the rumor, committed suicide when the man she loved left her for a much younger woman.
Place de l'Opera
A more breathtaking place for uncertain expeditions is the `L’ossuaire Municipal`, more commonly recognized as the Catacombe, a macabre network of tunnels of which a small section was dedicated as a cemetery due to the extreme fullness of resting places in Paris in the 1800s. This process has lead to inhuman condition and mistreatment of the population’s rights, but now can be seen during tours as a historical relic and source. The sight is composed of human skeleton parts stacked together and scattered everywhere marking this place as repulsive and frightening.
Catacombe
Those who have visited the tunnels often recall hearing strange voices echoing as though the dead have awoken. There is also a tale about a man who had started exploring the area by himself and a tape of him running away from something unknown as he left his video camera behind. The person has never been found. A great number of people have gone missing whilst in the tunnels and an anonymous man had lived through the detestable experience of losing all of his friends and never finding them again at the age of 18 inside the Catacombe. He recalls there being 7 of them and staying under for 17 hours with lamps and torches burning all the time, testing their boundaries of how far they could get before giving up. He mentioned that suddenly all the lights failed. He shared his helplessness and struggles in the dark and detailed his worries: ‘"one thing you don't want to happen is to be lost down there with no lights, even if you think you remember the way, because when the lights go out the tunnels change and move."’ After the lights going out, the man shared "We grouped together and started praying, and one lamp came on, mine, so we held hands and I led the way, we knew this tunnel so I was able to lead the way." After this, he "reached the surface, and looked back at my friends to find they weren't there. I could feel Louis holding my hand all the time, but when I looked back I saw my hand clasping a dark shadow."
Catacombe tunnel
Apart from the possibility of ghosts’ presence in Paris, Nicolas Claux, a serial murderer in France has had bone fragments and human teeth spread out over his apartment floor before being arrested in 1994, as well as human meat and blood stored in his refrigerator presumably used for the purposes of drinking and eating, gaining himself the notoriety of a ‘vampire’, reflecting a wide variety of sources of fear amongst the habitants of Paris.
Paris as a city may still remain a place of fantastic works of art, wonderful architecture and famous structures dating way back, it also possesses a strong and dark history of murder, torture, cannibalism, Satanism and a few stories of unexplained phenomena. Overall, we can state that judging by first sight is not always useful tactics anymore- we never know what can be waiting ahead.
By: Roberta Rehus
