11 ms·

The fight between cataphiles and police in the Paris catacombs

125 points by dave1010uk 3y ago

OhioMan2943 3y ago
Catacombs isn't the first thing I'd think of when I hear the word 'cataphile'
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- ycombinete 3y ago
  I 100% thought this was going to be about catamites and the police in some bygone age.
- dtgriscom 3y ago
  I went to feline-o-philia.
  - poorlyknit 3y ago
    To be pedantic, that's mixing latin (felis) with greek (philia). Not sure if there's a word already but you could do ailourophilia.
    - usrusr 3y ago
      I'm not good at dead languages, but I've heard complaints about cross-language mixing often enough that I suspect that there's a special term for people who like pointing that out. Or perhaps, depending on irony levels, three terms. One each in Greek and Latin which they use to describe themselves, and one in Greek and Latin others use to describe them.
      - Aardwolf 3y ago
        > I suspect that there's a special term for people who like pointing that out How about "commixtiophobia". Commixtio = Latin for 'mixing', phobia = Greek for 'fear'
    - cantSpellSober 3y ago
      For HN; that's not pedantry :) When I, too, learned this wasn't about cats I scrolled down to see what the proper term was. Thanks!
kylebenzle 3y ago
Sad to see they are planning on filling them up with concrete:(
- andrewflnr 3y ago
  Sounds more like divided into sections by concrete walls than actually filled, which would be, uh, definitely not climate friendly.
- anigbrowl 3y ago
  We had to destroy or heritage in order to save it?
- johncoltrane 3y ago
  No one is planning to do that. Filling entry points with concrete, though, which is what the article is referring to, has been standard practice for a long time. And breaking up those large blobs of concrete has been a core activity of cataphiles for as long as it happened. I was not a cataphile but, like lots of locals, I used to go down there almost every week-end in the mid-to-late 90s. The times of large decadent parties were already over by then. You could still meet a surprising number and variety of people but the "ambiance" was not as romantic as you might think from reading the article: the IGC was doing crackdowns and blocking entry points, the cataphiles were very hostile to other visitors, and the few "parties" that still happened at "La plage" or elsewhere where really a handful of people smoking weed. The catacombs were a pretty cool playground to have, that's for sure, but let's not exaggerate its cultural importance.
  - actionfromafar 3y ago
    These stories and your reply solidify the cultural importance!
  - liotier 3y ago
    > No one is planning to do that. Filling entry points with concrete Filling is mostly to reinforce zones threatened by collapse. Entrances are secured mostly by sawing off the ladder rungs and welding the manhole covers. > ambiance" was not as romantic as you might think from reading the article Romantic to people who enjoy mud ! > cataphiles were very hostile to other visitors The small groups who go down to party in what they consider their own private space can indeed be a bit noxious, with reactions such as lighting up smoke generating fireworks to drown the a bit of the network... I won't forget the adventure of finding our ways with one foot visibility.
Scoundreller 3y ago
Some really old (some 10 years old, wow, geriatric on the web) websites still hosted by free.fr: http://catacombes.web.free.fr/ http://catacombes.web.free.fr/ http://exploration.urban.free.fr/carrieres/indexus.htm http://exploration.urban.free.fr/carrieres/indexus.htm
- a_nar 3y ago
  I've never heard of free.fr. Is there some sort of a special backstory?
  - Timshel 3y ago
    Just one of the main French ISP ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_(ISP) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_(ISP) ) More aggressive in term of pricing for ADSL then Fiber and mobile when they became a phone carrier.
    - baku-fr 3y ago
      They also used to offer webhosting if you were subscribed to them and would never delete your website even if your contract expired (I've got an ugly one from 2006 that's still up even though I've changed ISPs a while ago).
      - GuB-42 3y ago
        And the subscription itself was free for their RTC per-hour plan, hence the name. It means it was one of the most popular web host in France during that time, it was literally free, with decent space for the time (upped over time, I think it started at 100MB to 10GB now), a MySQL database, PHP support, no ads, no weirdness. You didn't even have to use that RTC plan you subscribed to.
        ornornor 3y ago
        I believe RTC is called PSTN in English.
jmcomets 3y ago
Another fact not mentioned in this article is the WWII historical locations found in the unofficial Catacombs. Back when I lived in Paris, I was lucky enough to know someone who had access to one of the Cataphiles' maps (yearly-updated with notes on entrances and potential police patrols, with closest exits and dangerous passages). We visited an old school basement, which was used as a bunker for members of the Resistance. The school itself was razed and rebuilt over at some point, but the Catacombs still hold traces of this period. Being there felt very...intimate. Nothing like you'd see in a museum or a documentary, we were in the same place as those back then.
- Aromasin 3y ago
  I had a very similar experience. I used to do a lot of "urban exploring" in the UK, and as part of that, I visited Paris for it with some friends. We went with a guide I met on a forum to a secret resistance shelter recently uncovered at the time, and there was still litter from the 1940s. Old cigarette and match boxes, wine bottles, old posters and the like. It was exactly as you describe; intimate, in the way that visiting a mausoleum or cathedral is compared to a museum. I'm sure it's been picked clean now, but the memory will stick with me forever I suspect.
olalonde 3y ago
I highly recommend this video on a group of cataphiles who setup a temporary movie theater and bar in the catacombs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auI8QkL74S8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auI8QkL74S8
SliceOfWaifu 3y ago
I just rewatched "As Above So Below" the other day. Didn't know messing around in the catacombs is something people actually did in real life.
joloooo 3y ago
There's a good couple of chapters on the catacombs in Robert Macfarlane's book The Underland (https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/53121631 https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/53121631)
ornornor 3y ago
> Carthusian monks converted the ancient quarries under their monastery into distilleries for the green or yellow liqueur that still carries their name, chartreuse. Is that right? Chartreuse is named after the eponymous mountain in the alps, on the other end of the country and it’s been made there for ages because it’s made out of plants and herbs that grow nearby and nowhere near Paris.

125 points by dave1010uk 3y ago

OhioMan2943 3y ago

Catacombs isn't the first thing I'd think of when I hear the word 'cataphile'

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
ycombinete 3y ago
I 100% thought this was going to be about catamites and the police in some bygone age.
dtgriscom 3y ago
I went to feline-o-philia.
- poorlyknit 3y ago
  To be pedantic, that's mixing latin (felis) with greek (philia). Not sure if there's a word already but you could do ailourophilia.
  - usrusr 3y ago
    I'm not good at dead languages, but I've heard complaints about cross-language mixing often enough that I suspect that there's a special term for people who like pointing that out. Or perhaps, depending on irony levels, three terms. One each in Greek and Latin which they use to describe themselves, and one in Greek and Latin others use to describe them.
    - Aardwolf 3y ago
      > I suspect that there's a special term for people who like pointing that out How about "commixtiophobia". Commixtio = Latin for 'mixing', phobia = Greek for 'fear'
  - cantSpellSober 3y ago
    For HN; that's not pedantry :) When I, too, learned this wasn't about cats I scrolled down to see what the proper term was. Thanks!

kylebenzle 3y ago

Sad to see they are planning on filling them up with concrete:(

andrewflnr 3y ago
Sounds more like divided into sections by concrete walls than actually filled, which would be, uh, definitely not climate friendly.
anigbrowl 3y ago
We had to destroy or heritage in order to save it?
johncoltrane 3y ago
No one is planning to do that. Filling entry points with concrete, though, which is what the article is referring to, has been standard practice for a long time. And breaking up those large blobs of concrete has been a core activity of cataphiles for as long as it happened. I was not a cataphile but, like lots of locals, I used to go down there almost every week-end in the mid-to-late 90s. The times of large decadent parties were already over by then. You could still meet a surprising number and variety of people but the "ambiance" was not as romantic as you might think from reading the article: the IGC was doing crackdowns and blocking entry points, the cataphiles were very hostile to other visitors, and the few "parties" that still happened at "La plage" or elsewhere where really a handful of people smoking weed. The catacombs were a pretty cool playground to have, that's for sure, but let's not exaggerate its cultural importance.
- actionfromafar 3y ago
  These stories and your reply solidify the cultural importance!
- liotier 3y ago
  > No one is planning to do that. Filling entry points with concrete Filling is mostly to reinforce zones threatened by collapse. Entrances are secured mostly by sawing off the ladder rungs and welding the manhole covers. > ambiance" was not as romantic as you might think from reading the article Romantic to people who enjoy mud ! > cataphiles were very hostile to other visitors The small groups who go down to party in what they consider their own private space can indeed be a bit noxious, with reactions such as lighting up smoke generating fireworks to drown the a bit of the network... I won't forget the adventure of finding our ways with one foot visibility.

Scoundreller 3y ago

Some really old (some 10 years old, wow, geriatric on the web) websites still hosted by free.fr: http://catacombes.web.free.fr/ http://catacombes.web.free.fr/ http://exploration.urban.free.fr/carrieres/indexus.htm http://exploration.urban.free.fr/carrieres/indexus.htm

a_nar 3y ago
I've never heard of free.fr. Is there some sort of a special backstory?
- Timshel 3y ago
  Just one of the main French ISP ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_(ISP) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_(ISP) ) More aggressive in term of pricing for ADSL then Fiber and mobile when they became a phone carrier.
  - baku-fr 3y ago
    They also used to offer webhosting if you were subscribed to them and would never delete your website even if your contract expired (I've got an ugly one from 2006 that's still up even though I've changed ISPs a while ago).
    - GuB-42 3y ago
      And the subscription itself was free for their RTC per-hour plan, hence the name. It means it was one of the most popular web host in France during that time, it was literally free, with decent space for the time (upped over time, I think it started at 100MB to 10GB now), a MySQL database, PHP support, no ads, no weirdness. You didn't even have to use that RTC plan you subscribed to.
      - ornornor 3y ago
        I believe RTC is called PSTN in English.

jmcomets 3y ago

Another fact not mentioned in this article is the WWII historical locations found in the unofficial Catacombs. Back when I lived in Paris, I was lucky enough to know someone who had access to one of the Cataphiles' maps (yearly-updated with notes on entrances and potential police patrols, with closest exits and dangerous passages). We visited an old school basement, which was used as a bunker for members of the Resistance. The school itself was razed and rebuilt over at some point, but the Catacombs still hold traces of this period. Being there felt very...intimate. Nothing like you'd see in a museum or a documentary, we were in the same place as those back then.

Aromasin 3y ago
I had a very similar experience. I used to do a lot of "urban exploring" in the UK, and as part of that, I visited Paris for it with some friends. We went with a guide I met on a forum to a secret resistance shelter recently uncovered at the time, and there was still litter from the 1940s. Old cigarette and match boxes, wine bottles, old posters and the like. It was exactly as you describe; intimate, in the way that visiting a mausoleum or cathedral is compared to a museum. I'm sure it's been picked clean now, but the memory will stick with me forever I suspect.

olalonde 3y ago

I highly recommend this video on a group of cataphiles who setup a temporary movie theater and bar in the catacombs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auI8QkL74S8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auI8QkL74S8

SliceOfWaifu 3y ago

I just rewatched "As Above So Below" the other day. Didn't know messing around in the catacombs is something people actually did in real life.

joloooo 3y ago

There's a good couple of chapters on the catacombs in Robert Macfarlane's book The Underland (https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/53121631 https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/53121631)

ornornor 3y ago

> Carthusian monks converted the ancient quarries under their monastery into distilleries for the green or yellow liqueur that still carries their name, chartreuse. Is that right? Chartreuse is named after the eponymous mountain in the alps, on the other end of the country and it’s been made there for ages because it’s made out of plants and herbs that grow nearby and nowhere near Paris.