Beyond the baguette – exploring Paris’ dark side

When planning my trip to Paris, I wanted to see more of the city than just the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. While the French capital’s known for its iconic landmarks, charming cafés and beautiful gardens, I was more curious about the darker side of the city – think less Emily in Paris and more Les Misérables. Well, Paris did not disappoint in the eerie department.

If, like me, you live for all things spooky and scary, here are four things to do in Paris you don’t want to miss…

The Paris Catacombs

In the late 18th century, Paris had a serious problem with its dead. Because of the growing population and therefore growing death rate, the cemeteries in the city were full to the brim – you know you’ve got a real problem if you can’t even bury the bodies properly. On top of that, all the decomposing corpses in the middle of the city were starting to cause serious health problems for the living.

So, in true French fashion, the authorities got creative with the unused stone quarries 20 metres below the city, turning them into a handy storage space for around six million people’s remains. Skulls and bones were neatly stacked along the tunnels and stone decorations were added, turning it into one big mausoleum. Even back then, the public loved a bit of morbidity, so it wasn’t long before the catacombs became a one-of-a-kind museum. It’s open Tuesday to Sunday and entry costs around €31.

Feeling brave? Book this guided tour with access to restricted areas.

Père Lachaise Cemetery

Speaking of cemeteries, the leafy Cimetière du Père-Lachaise was one of the new graveyards that opened to help with the overflow problem in the early 1800s, becoming the largest in Paris. Today, it’s the resting place of big names like Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf and Frederick Chopin, making it the most-visited cemetery in the world, bringing over 3.5 million tourists a year. Their graves have become full-on shrines – Morrison’s and Wilde’s got so much attention, they’re now behind barriers to stop fans from touching them. Wilde’s tomb even had to be restored because it was covered in so many lipstick marks. Join a guided tour of the famous graves to make the most of your visit.

Strolling past the graves was a welcome change of pace – it feels like things move more slowly here than everywhere else in the city. We spent hours admiring some of the more grand tombs, while in other corners, ivy leaves covered up the older, sloping headstones. If you’re lucky, a fox might cross your path – we saw one and later learned that in folklore, they indicate a thin veil between the world of the living and the dead. I don’t have goosebumps, you do…

The Pantheon

Meaning ‘sacred to a god’ in Greek, Pantheon is basically a big hall of fame for France’s great thinkers and inspirational figures. It’s like a cathedral – it was actually built on the site of an ancient abbey – but instead of saints, it honours radical ideas and people who dared to think outside the box. As you walk in, it’s all neoclassical columns, high ceilings and heroic frescoes of Joan of Arc and other French legends. But when you descend downstairs into the crypt, the mood shifts. It’s colder, darker and feels heavier somehow. There’s a network of tombs down here reserved exclusively for national treasures – Emile Zola, Marie Curie, Voltaire, Josephine Baker and Victor Hugo all made the cut.

Victor Hugo’s tomb gave me chills. Not because it was grand or anything – it wasn’t – but because it meant a lot to me. Les Misérables shaped the way I understood injustice and began my interest in the French Revolution. Seeing the name of its author in the heart of the city left me speechless. His presence felt earned. Hugo was far more than a writer – and France made sure he wouldn’t be forgotten.

Visit the Pantheon and more sights on this walking tour of the Latin Quarter.

Palais Garnier

AKA the real-life setting of The Phantom of the Opera. This extravagant opera house is giving haunted mansion, with its marble statues, mega staircases and dim lights – is your mind playing tricks or can you can see a masked shadow lurking in box five? The famous novel was inspired by a combo of ghost stories and creepy events that happened IRL, like a chandelier crashing down and killing someone 1896.

Even if you’re not visiting for a ballet or opera, the building itself’s totally worth a visit. Next to the Grand Escaliér, there’s a dimly lit library filled with original scores and paintings of artists who once performed there. Then there’s the Grand Foyer, which was modelled after Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors. This is where nobles would mingle between acts and was the place to be seen.

Find out all the lore with a private tour of the Opera Garnier and Paris’ covered passages.