Paris is a very old city. As you can see from the Wikipedia article, Paris was founded in the 3rd century BC, i.e. he is almost two and a half thousand years. The French are very sensitive to their own history, creating a cult and landmark of every major event. The French government supports the historical monuments in the state, the most interesting to visit for their tourists. (However, it is a European practice. Nobody, for example, is not going to align the leaning tower of Pisa: the "falling down" as it attracts tourists and is a symbol of Italy, and after major repairs may turn into another tall building). Residents also strongly support the preservation of the feeling of antiquity surrounding cities: all urban legends are carefully cultivated, perpetuates in monuments and street names, symbols and Souvenirs.
This attitude to history and monuments has led to the fact that the historical centre of Paris is literally shrouded in mystery. The name of almost every street reveals interesting (and sometimes dramatic) story, in every quarter has its own urban legends that will tell the locals.
It is quite natural that in a place with such a rich and carefully preserved history the most common of the legends of ghosts, therefore, the habitats of the most famous Parisian ghosts and was given the most attention during the expedition.
The Paris Opera
The most famous Parisian Ghost is, of course, the Ghost of the Grand Opera (better known to us as the phantom of the Opera).[2] This building is located in the Palais Garnier (Palais Garnier), and is the thirteenth Paris Opera after the official recognition of this art form by Louis XIV in 1669. For the first time Grand Opera opened on 15 January 1875. [3]
Fame the phantom of the Opera has gained through the novel by the French writer Gaston Leroux "the phantom of the Opera", first published in the newspaper Le Gaulois in September 1909 - January 1910. It is believed that the basis of a beautiful story described in the book was the legend of this Ghost. Moreover, in some of its variations, is not about hiding in the Opera were a real person, and this comes from another world. They say that still in the contracts of the Directors of the Paris Opera house remains a clause that prohibits pass Lodge No. 5 in the first tier to anyone. This is the bed Erica. According to legend, the Ghost sometimes appears there, coming every time some time after the start of the performance.
As already mentioned, the Parisians strongly cultivated. Although the theatrical season closed in August, Opera available for tours tourists, and in front of the building to attract them goes to the artist, dressed as a Ghost. You can talk to him and free to be photographed.
Some narrators mention the ghosts in the cellars, which are connected with the rumors of the executed royalists and the Communards (after the fall of the Commune).
Unfortunately, and basement, and Lodge No. 5 closed to tourists. However, we were lucky, was opened to visit the auditorium, and we made a lot of photos of the famous lodges.
In the audience quite dusty, so the photos taken with flash, you can observe the effects, that some paranormal researchers probably would be taken as "plasmoids".
Our photos are no ghosts (except the "Ghost" at the entrance) was found. Perhaps we should try to photograph in box 5 during a performance, although this may be due to purely administrative difficulties, it is doubtful that employees of the Opera would react calmly to the man, taking pictures of the auditorium in the middle of the presentation. In any case, as mentioned above, during our visit to the theatre season was closed, so check the building workers on tolerance was not possible.
Catacombs
The Paris catacombs are a network of artificial tunnels and caves located under the city, stretching on different data from 187 to 300 km. However, it is now open for tourist only 2.5 kilometers. Part of the catacombs centuries ago turned into ossuary – storage of skeletal remains. Since the end of XVIII century in the catacombs lie the remains of nearly six million people. The story of their appearance there, though grim, but very simple and not carry anything mysterious.
Originally the catacombs were a mine for the extraction of limestone. At first, the extraction of stones were in an open way, but by the end of the X century its reserves was not enough. At first mine was located quite far from the city, but the expansion of the residential part of Paris led to the fact that by the seventeenth century, a quarry was already in the city, and much of the residential areas are actually "hung" over the precipice. In April 1777, king Louis XVI issued a decree establishing the General Inspectorate of quarries, which still exists today and is responsible for creating fortifications in the catacombs.
On the other hand, according to the established Christian tradition, the deceased tried to bury in the area adjacent to the Church land. The Christian cemetery was located in the center of the settlements not only in Paris but throughout Europe. For example, on a 7 000 square metres of the cemetery of Innocent, which functioned from the XI century, was buried the 19 parishioners from churches as well as unidentified bodies. In 1418, the epidemic of bubonic plague added about 50,000 dead. In 1572, the cemetery contained thousands of victims of the massacre of St. Bartholomew. Since the middle of the XVIII century the cemetery became the burial place of two million bodies, a layer of burials left in depth sometimes on 10 meters, the ground level has risen more than two meters. In the same grave at different levels could be up to 1500 remains of different periods. Cemetery became a hotbed of infection, it is emitting a stench which was said to sour milk and wine. However, the priests were opposed to the closure of urban graveyards. But, despite the opposition of the representatives of the churches, in 1763, the Parliament of Paris issued a decree banning burials inside the walls of the city.
In 1780 year, the wall separating the cemetery of the Innocents houses on the next street Rue de La Langri collapsed. Basements of nearby houses were filled with the remains of the dead and a huge amount of dirt and filth. The cemetery was closed and finally buried in Paris banned. In continuation of 15 months, every night convoys in the black took out the bones, then to disinfect, process, and put in an abandoned mine. Later it was decided to clear another 17 300 cemeteries and cult places of the city. [4]
Now part of the catacombs and ossuary converted into a Museum open to all visitors. And wanting very much – we had to queue for 4 hours, more than in any other Museum. Groups start at the Museum every 5 minutes, in a group of about 20 people.
This photo was taken right before we got in line around noon. At the entrance hangs a counter showing number of visitors. When we came, the number on the scoreboard was more than a thousand.
The corridors are quite narrow and poorly lit. The first part of the Museum dedicated to the history of the quarry and contains mostly stands and layouts. After it starts the actual ossuary. Above the entrance hangs a sign with the warning: "Arrete! C'est ici L'empire de la Mort", which means "Stop! Here — Empire of the dead." Due to the difference of darkness between the two rooms you cannot see what is in the tunnel until you come to it, which creates an additional effect.
About ossuary many legends associated with ghosts. This is not surprising – the place is quite gloomy, but reigning there in the shadows of the impressionable people of any shade can be taken for a Ghost.
A typical view of the tunnel in the ossuaries:
About certain groups of bones are signs indicating cemeteries in which they were originally buried. To make this photo and had to miss all forward. Tourists very much, and they fall almost in every frame. And almost all photographed. A typical picture:
Flash photography, like most museums, is prohibited. It is evident that tourists with cameras very much. With such a light and without a flash modern cameras automatically set the modes with a slow shutter speed, which often leads to the presence in the pictures blurry silhouettes and light. However, if these places were real "canonical" ghosts, with the high number of visitors photos with them should be a lot. However, neither our photos nor in the results of searching the Internet we found nothing that could not be attributed to poor shooting conditions. There remains the possibility that ghosts only appear at night and any employee of the catacombs will respond to our requests and provide us with night photos and the ghosts.
The Louvre
The basis of the Louvre lies the castle — the Great tower of the Louvre was constructed by king Philip Augustus in 1190. In 1317 Charles V made the castle a Royal residence. Work on construction and reconstruction of the Louvre continued with small breaks until 1852, When the Palace was turned into Museum in the late 18th century for the first time its doors opened on 8 November 1793 In 1989 in the center of the Napoleon courtyard was built the glass pyramid [5]. During the construction of the pyramid was dug a deep enough pit, in which were found the foundations and walls of the old Louvre. In accordance with French tradition, they were saved and are now part of the Museum.
About the Louvre there are legends about the many ghosts that inhabit different parts of the huge building. The most famous are the stories about the Ghost of the White Lady, which portended trouble for the reigning dynasty. However, this is a Ghost no one has seen since the castle became a Museum. But the legend of the Ghost of Jeanne of Navarre (mother of Henry IV, supposedly poisoned by Catherine de Medici with kid gloves), lives on to this day. According to legend, every year she quietly slips to the side of the former chambers of his killer passes through the wall and hiding in them. A few more stories about the ghosts of the Louvre can be found in [6].
In addition, several mystical stories associated with the Museum exhibits, first and foremost, of course, with the famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa". It is believed that this picture takes the life energy from people who look at her. Officials say that during the long interruptions in the work of the Museum it fades, and after the opening seems to be alive again – even the famous smile becomes visible more clearly.
The Louvre is much said earlier about the catacombs, but on a larger scale. The Louvre along with the Eiffel tower is one of the most visited places of the capital of France, and every day there is a few thousand (or even tens of thousands) of people. The number of people in the Museum on Monday (a weekday!) you can appreciate in the following pictures.
Before the "Mona Lisa" the number of tourists even more
To get into the first rows very hard, but we did it. The picture is carefully guarded and placed behind thick armored glass, therefore almost all of her photos are a bit damaged and reflections.
The painting itself is quite small, and some of the mystical aura around her we felt. But you need to keep in mind that in such circumstances, in principle, difficult to admire the works of art, so perhaps when the spectator with the picture alone, it produces a much stronger impression.
As in the catacombs, in our pictures failed to register anything resembling the ghosts. And similarly it may be that they just don't like the daily bustle, and they prefer to appear in the empty corridors of the Louvre at night, when they can see, except that employees of the Museum.
Street of the cat who fished (rue du Chat qui Peche)
This is one of the oldest and the narrowest and shortest street of Paris (its width is only about 1.5 m, length about 15 m). The existence of this street is the best shows the attitude of French history, as well as their ability to create long living legend, basically. There are many explanations for the name of the street. We liked this [1]:
"In the XV century in these places he lived a black cat, who knew how to catch fish with his paw, and served him food. The owner of this cat, black as coal, was the old Canon St-Severina, father Pearl, who was suspected night alchemy. Three students Sobranny noticed that never saw the cat and Canon together, and hence came to the conclusion that both these creatures, clad in black, are actually one being. Without thinking, they waited for the cat-fisherman next to the Laundry room, killed him, and the corpse was thrown into the Seine. No one that day saw the father of Pearl. The disappearance of the Canon has turned against the killers: justice in a strange way accused them of killing a priest-alchemist, and the crown Prosecutor decided to hang all three on the gallows in Montfaucon. A few days later, to everyone's surprise, the alleged father returned from an unexpected trip and celebrated mass at Saint-Severine. At the same time and a black cat appeared from nowhere, proceeded to his favourite occupation on the shore near the Laundry room. Since then, the street got its current name. And more so nobody dared to disturb the old alchemist and it a very strange companion, a black cat..."
In the course of this expedition had been recorded 3 versions of the legend about the history of education the name of the street that also have mystical overtones: the cat, or its owner, or they both were ghostly beings (beings from another world).
The French preserve this street attract tourists (although clean, it will not name – there are a lot of restaurants on this street as the driveway often gets the garbage). On the walls depicted the theme of graffiti.
However, the only suspicious thing on the street (except us) was a strange looking Frenchman.
Other anomalous zones
Unfortunately, in some places described in local urban legends as anomalous, could not get to. An example is the Deadlock of artists and house on the street San Pere now this is a private property, surrounded by a high iron gate with a warning sign.
There are many ancient urban legends about what is in the houses of the Impasse of artists haunted by ghosts. However, quite recently (in the 80-ies of the last century) originated a completely new legend about the house being next to this dead end: the renovation of the mansion in the street of Sant Pere (Rue des Saints-Peres) there have been numerous accidents. It is believed that the house is haunted by the Ghost of the owner who built this house for himself and his lover and protect him from any intruders.
We this house is meticulously photographed with those parties that are available to tourists. However, on a clear Sunny day it was not discovered nothing that mysterious, but gloomy.
We Express our deep gratitude for the assistance during the expedition, Inna M. (Many thanks for the help during the expedition for Inna M.)
Personal public thanks to the project member Artie for the idea of going to a famous anomalous zones of the world.
We also Express our gratitude to all who helped with the collection of information, but who asked not to advertise their data. (Also we would like to thank everyone who helped with the collection of information, but wished not to publicize their personal data)
Translated by «Yandex.Translator»
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