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The Sewers of Paris or les Egouts in French are a quite known visit in the Capital. And so, Philippe Auguste, who was the King of France from the year 1180 right through to 1223, gave orders for the streets of Paris to be paved and have drainage gullies put in, which meant that Paris has had some form of sewer system and drainage for wastewater from the 13th century.

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I’ve heard of underground subway tours, but never the sewer! In the 18th century, the cemeteries of the ever-growing city of Paris were running out of space. Loire Valley In Paris, there are two different sets of underground water pipes. Who knows; the old bones lying around might have acted as some sort of fertilizer for the mushrooms, too. Giverny I'm Lucy – a travel blogger 'On the Luce', helping you maximise your travel time and money, sharing tips for travel adventures with a touch of affordable luxury.

Image credit: By Shadowgate from Novara, ITALY (Egouts) [.

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The sewer system was hailed as a technological marvel, a brilliant achievement that helped to usher Paris into the modern age.

I love underground tours! The early sewers were still open which didn’t do much to help prevent disease. “Overcrowded” is probably an understatement, seeing that after a flood broke the perimeter of the cemetery, bodies buried there began overflowing out onto the ground. All buildings in the city are connected to the sewers. [5], The cataphiles are a group of urban explorers with a penchant for spending vast amounts of time within the depths of the Catacombs of Paris for their own enjoyment and adventure. Paris’ first sewers were built in 1370 – before then waste just ran down a channel in the middle of the road. Paris’ first sewers were built in 1370 – before then waste just ran down a channel in the middle of the road. What’s scarier than your typical, run-of-the-mill cemetery, though? The result was the current design, which by 1878 had reached a length of 373 miles (600km). In 2004, police who were undertaking a training exercise in the Catacombs stumbled upon something completely unexpected. Read about more unique resting places for the dead on 10 Most Bizarre Tombs Ever Discovered and 10 Residents of the Capuchin Catacombs. While it’s estimated that there are around 320 kilometers (200 mi) of tunnels, not all of them have been mapped, and the rest is uncharted territory.

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What may surprise you is that they were used by both sides. Today’s sewer tour … Imagining great escapes, secret meetings, and the occasional vampire makes a visit to the Paris sewers all the more fascinating. He decided to use the abandoned tunnels to begin growing his own champignon de Paris (aka button mushrooms), a practice which was soon recognized and accepted by the Horticultural Society of Paris.[9]. design a complete system for water supply and waste removal, The Questionnaires of James Lipton, Bernard Pivot, and Marcel Proust, 13 Ways to Find North If You’re Lost in the Woods. Maps (map) is the place to start. )[10] Traces of this bunker still remain today. Baron Haussmann, prefect for the Seine, in 1850.

The tunnels that make up the Paris sewer system are mostly quite large—almost the size of a subway tunnel. I didn’t realise there were tours like this in other cities – something to remember when I finally make it out to Seattle!

Apart from their relatively mundane primary function, the sewers of Paris have provided fertile material for a number of writers over the years. The entrance to the Musée des Égouts de Paris is by the Pont de l’Alma, opposite 93 Quai d’Orsay.

Web Visit website. One of the city's odder tourist attractions, the Musée des Egouts (Paris Sewer Museum) affords visitors an intriguing glimpse into the historic sewer system, first developed around 1370 and extended very slowly in the centuries that followed. There are also a great many lesser-known places of historical interest, including one of my favorite places to bring guests when I was living in Paris: the sewer system. The Catacombs helped to ensure that they wouldn’t be seen by German spies and would escape detection. The Catacombs of Paris hide many dark secrets. Read more... Oh my gosh. You can follow the history of the sewers, from the days of Lutèce to the present day, through a 500m underground path. watched old movies of World War II resistance Paris Shopping Ossuaries—there’s something inherently hair-raising about them, and to many, they’re some of the creepiest and most taboo places on the planet. “Paris has another Paris under herself; a Paris of sewers; which has its streets, its crossings, its squares, its blind alleys, its arteries, and its circulation, which is slime, minus the human form” (from Les Misérables). During the 20th century the system was modernized and extended to 1000 km (621 miles), carrying the city's used water to modern treatment plants.

But as the population of the city continued to swell, the primitive sewage systems could not keep up with it, and the Seine—still used for both intake and disposal—became absurdly polluted. It shows you can make a tourist attraction out of pretty much anything! The sewers also play a role in Phantom of the Opera, in Umberto Eco’s novel Foucault’s Pendulum, and of course in Ratatouille. S ewers have been draining wastewater in Paris since the beginning of the 13th Century, when the city's streets were paved and drains were built on orders from Philippe Auguste, the king of France from 1180 to 1223. The nearest Metro station is at Alma-Marceau. Thanks! And as you can’t have a sewer without rats, there’s even a few stuffed ones in a glass case. . The tunnels are quite wide and spacious, in contrast to the more claustrophobic tunnels of the catacombs; built of modern concrete rather than the old stonework you might imagine. I've created a separate article for the museum: Paris Sewer Museum Rystheguy 12:02, 22 June 2015 (UTC) Edited the part about fictional references to reflect the fact that the novel 'Le Phantôme de l'Opéra' by Gaston Leroux does not play in the sewers under Paris, it plays in the Catacombs underneath the Opera House, which are not part of the sewer system.

Indeed, Bruneseau found a number of interesting artifacts during his explorations, ranging from lost jewels to the skeleton of an orangutan that had escaped from a zoo several years previously.