creepy paris – Page 2 – Paris History of our Streets

Before The Big Fire, the Cathedral of Notre Dame was one of the most visited landmarks in Europe and about 13 MILLION people come annually to see this gothic wonder. Since it’s first stone was laid over 800 years ago, Our Lady has been a beacon in the city of lights to Parisians, pilgrims, and tourists from all over the world.

Imagine you are a visitor to Paris in the 19th century looking in your travel guide (yes travel guides have been around longer than Rick Steves) at the ile de la cité. Chances are the first recommendation wouldn’t be ND, but rather the other, even more popular attraction in the area… The Morgue.

No visit to the Morgue would be complete without a postcard!

Listed as a MUST SEE next to the Eiffel Tower and Catacombs, the morgue was described by Hughes Leroux in 1888 as “a part of every conscientious provincial’s first visit to the capital”.

To give you an idea of its popularity, the Eiffel Tower today receives about 20,000 visitors per day. In the 19th century the Morgue received as many as 40,000. We all know our Victorian predecessors were a rather morbid bunch (“oh poor Granny kicked the bucket last night? Quick Edmond, throw her in her rocking chair and force her eyes open so we can get a photo op before the rigamortus sets in!”) but this macabre tourist attraction might be excessively ghoulish.

Originally situated on the Quai du Marché Neuf, a larger and more modern Morgue was built in 1864 in the backyard of Notre Dame on the Quai de l’Archevêché. Although the morgue was built for the intended purposes of identifying and embalming bodies (most of which were fished out of the Seine, which conveniently flowed just a few meters away) it was literally advertised as being a sort of grim spectator sport.

Similar to visiting an oddity at a Carnival like a bearded lady or conjoined twins, up to 50 people at a time would pass through the entry and gaze at the cold, naked bodies laid out on marble slabs behind a window of glass.

Anyone and ANYTHING (yes that detached leg might look familiar to someone) that needed to be identified was displayed at the Paris Morgue. Thick velvety curtains were hung at either end of the display room so workers could discreetly change bodies on a regular basis, and then dramatically open the curtains like a stage show.

Spectators would gawk and gossip over the remains; murder victims and young women drew the most crowds. Jersey Shore wasn’t a source of entertainment in the 1800’s, but to get your fix of reality entertainment, you could come to the morgue when the police arranged a special “confrontation” between a murder suspect and his victim! Our wholesome American author Mark Twain was even known to be a regular visitor of the Paris morgue.

Strangely enough, the Morgue wasn’t just a place for tourists. It was a social place to see and be seen; with men, women, and children from all social classes passing through its doors regularly in the name of civic duty, sometimes stopping to have a chat with neighbors outside to gossip over the most recent finds, maybe even buying cookies or gingerbread from various venders near the opening to snack on before entering.

Emile Zola described the morgue in his book Raquin from 1867 as “The morgue is a sight within reach of everybody, and one to which passers-by, rich and poor alike, treat themselves. The door stands open, and all are free to enter. There are admirers of the scene who go out of their way so as not to miss one of these performances of death. If the slabs have nothing on them, visitors leave the building disappointed, feeling as if they had been cheated, and murmuring between their teeth; but when they are fairly well occupied, people crowd in front of them and treat themselves to cheap emotions; they express horror, they joke, they applaud or whistle, as at the theatre, and withdraw satisfied, declaring the Morgue a success on that particular day.”

The morgue was eventually closed in 1907 due to “morality concerns” and this was good timing given the horrors that would soon come from WWI and II.

You may wonder how people not far off from us today, (maybe even some of you Boomers knew them as your parents or grandparents) could entertain themselves in such a horrid way, but its important to note this was during a time when executions were still public and death was much more a part of daily life. Besides, you were probably keen to check out The Body Worlds exhibit when that took the modern world by storm weren’t you?

Today, the building is gone, and a there is a simple park with a Holocaust Memorial in its place.

26 rue Chanoinesse, 4ème arrondissement Ile de la Cité.

The very heart of Paris for nearly 2,000 years sits on a small island right in the center of the city. And if you walk past the dozen tourist shops and cafés selling post cards and expensive crappy coffée, nestled just behind the towers of Notre Dame Cathedral is a beautiful little medieval street that was spared during the great renovation works of Paris in the 19th century that left the rest of Ile de la Cité basically leveled. This street was home to the clergy of Notre Dame since the 14th century, as well as the clergy to the previous church that existed there before then. It’s reminants are still present, hidden behind massive doors to sleepy buildings.

There are 2 very important things to know when you are in Paris. 1. Always go through open doors that are usually locked if the opportunity to do so arises. There are many special hidden corridors (called coure in french. They lead to buildings behind the main building you see on the street) on the other side of big doors in Paris and it is an unspoken rule that you can always enter if you can manage to get through the door, which is usually always locked and accessable by a code 2. If you are in an old building, always check out the bathroom. More on that another day..

What’s behind the door?

Behind the red door at number 26 (I waited outside for approximately 4 minutes until a lady left and let me enter. She gave me a look like, “I know you don’t live here but IDGAF”) is an obviously old and narrow corridor leading to the entries of several apartment buildings. It is believed that this used to be an alley way leading to the parallel Rue des Ursins.

Watch your step here, and not just to avoid a broken ankle on the uneven cobblestone. You are walking upon the tombstones of the dead. If you look along the left wall at the ground, you can make out gothic style latin lettering, faded over hundreds of years of footsteps. Apparently these are the re-purposed tombstones of long gone religious members that used to reside in this area. So much for respecting the dead eh?