Problably the most notorisouly creepy location in Paris, if not the entire world, is Les Catacombs. They are a network of tunnels found beneath the city with over 200 miles of walls stacked high with the skulls and bones of the dead from victims of the French Revolution. A small portion is open to the public, many of them speculating on the legends of supernatural phenomena that dwells underneath the city lights.
1. The ghost of Philibert Apsairt
The story here is that Philibert Apsairt accidentally got lost in the underground tunnels as he was making his way down to a wine cellar. All he had with him was a single candle. It took eleven years to find his remains which were buried on the spot where he was found. They say his spirit returns to the catacombs every year.
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2. The footage from the catacombs
The 2014 movie “As Above, So Below” is about a group of young documentary filmmakers who find themselves lost inside and eventually encountering scary phenomena in the Catacombs. It’s a film inspired by real-life events based from the 1990s, when a group of Catacombs explorers found the camcorder of a lost explorer. The camcorder contained disturbing footage left behind.
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3. Henri Désiré Landru, the bluebeard of Gambais
Henri Désiré Landru was a French serial killer who was born in Paris in 1869. He charmed a succession of women to sign over their financial assets to him, before turning on them and murdering the women. He had 11 victims before his capture, losing his life to the guillotine in 1922.
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4. The Red Man of Tuileries Garden
The Tuileries Garden has had reports of sightings regarding a mysterious male figure covered in blood. According to legend, this is the ghost of Jean the Skinner, hired by 16th century Queen Catherine de’ Medici to take care of her enemies before she got rid of him. They say Marie Antoinette saw the ghost before her own execution, and that Napoleon had deep conversations with Jean the Skinner.
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5. Marcel Petiot, AKA Dr Satan
Marcel Petiot was responsible for at least 27 murders, though actual numbers could be much higher. He would pretend to offer escape to Jewish refugees escaping Nazi Germany in WW2. He would lure them into his home before butchering his victims. Petiot was decapitated in 1946 after he was found guilty.
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6. Cimetière de Montmartre
Paris has many Gothic graveyards. Places full of ornate headstones and crypts. Take a long, cold walk in Cimetière de Montmartre and look at the headstones. You’ll see names like filmmaker François Truffaut, ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, composer Hector Berlioz and artist Edgar Degas. They welcome you.
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7. Le Musée des Vampires
The Louvre isn’t always what everyone looks to visit in Paris. Go to Le Musée des Vampires, located near Porte des Lilas. The place is loaded with everything relating to the undead and the role they play in our culture. It’s all in a single room so you won’t take a full day.
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8. The Demon Barber of Rue Chanoinesse
London’s Sweeney Todd had the habit of trapping and killing his own customers for meat. But in Paris, around 500 years earlier, the Demon Barber of Rue Chanoinesse slashed the throats of his customers too. He did not give the bodies to his neighbouring pie shop though, instead he sold them to a butcher.
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9. Le Manoir de Paris
Le Manoir de Paris doesn’t just tell stories of the darker chapters from Parisian history. They bring stories to life in vivid detail. We’re talking actors in makeup and costumes so good they’ll freak out even the toughest of viewers.
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10. Cimetière du Père-Lachaise
There is a sinister air in Cimetière du Père-Lachaise. The spooky cemetery is surrounded by trees and filled with ornate tombs. Singer-songwriter Jim Morrison of The Doors and Irish writer Oscar Wilde are buried in this sprawling piece of land.
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11. Gérard de Nerval
Gérard de Nerval was a Romantic poet and notorious eccentric. He committed suicide in 1855 in rue de la Vieille-Lanterne. There is a theatre on the same location where he took his life, and there have been many reports of his ghost appearing and scaring off actors.
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12. The Phantom of the Opera
Gaston Leroux’s classic novel The Phantom of the Opera is a work of fiction. Leroux, however, was said to have drawn on real stories surrounding Opéra Garnier. The theatre has been haunted for the longest time, they say. There was also a real accident involving a falling chandelier.
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13. Musée Fragonard
Paris doesn’t have all its skeletons beneath the city. The Musée Fragonard d’Alfort is a museum packed with ‘anatomical oddities’. Animal skeletons and preserved cadavers line the place, among them a two-headed calf, a ten-legged sheep and Siamese twin lambs.
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14. The Gypsy of Rue de Bièvre
In Paris’ Rue de Bièvre, a public house was frequented by a gypsy. One who had every intention of reading the landlord’s fortune. He always threw the gypsy out, but his relatives soon began passing away due to strange and inexplicable circumstances. His wife ran off and disappeared with the gypsy too, so thinking he was cursed, he closed down the bar. The place still stands dormant to this very day.
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15. Musée des Egouts
It’s not the catacombs but this eerie tunnel is not for those with claustrophobia. The Musée des Egouts is a museum of the city’s historic sewer system that is in itself pretty creepy. It will stink for the obvious reasons but that’s a given.
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16. The Weeping Woman of Pont Marie bridge
It’s a beautiful place but the bridge is said to be the home of a woman from the wartime era. The story of the weeping woman on Pont Marie bridge is that she was a member of the Resistance who had frozen to death at the bridge waiting for her husband. Reports of her spectre being seen there weeping have been around for a long time.
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17. Thierry Paulin, The Old Ladies Killer
Another shocking story of a serial killer comes from a more recent time. Paulin was also known as the Monster of Montmarte. He was an ex-soldier and a drag performer with HIV who murdered 18 to 21 elderly women in the 1980s. Paulin was arrested but he developed AIDS and passed away before facing trial.
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18. Isauré de Montsouris
Here’s another Parisian ghost story but this time, surrounding the Palais du Bardo observatory in Parc Montsouris. The legend of a bandit named Isauré de Montsouris says he lived on the location centuries before the observatory was constructed. He was eventually put to death by beheading. His headless ghost is said to wander the area.
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19. Cimetière du Montparnasse
Cimetière du Montparnasse holds many notable names under its soil. Famous figures buried include the Statue of Liberty’s sculptor Frédéric Bartholdi, poet Charles Baudelaire and philosopher Jean-Paul Satre. Just another of the city’s creepy graveyards.
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20. The Devil’s Hands at Notre Dame
Paris’ Notre Dame is of the most famous Christian cathedrals in the world, but claims that the Devil’s influence can be felt there has gone around. The legend says a young craftsman named Biscornet was tasked with crafting the ornate doors, but he found the task difficult so he made a deal with the Devil to help him. Demons are found in the architecture.
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