Waking up among the dead for Halloween
Print Edition
This Halloween, two brave souls got the dubious honor of waking up among 6 million dead bodies in Paris鈥 creepy Catacombs.
Brazilian Pedro Arruda, 27, said he wasn鈥檛 sure if he was lucky or unlucky when he found out he had won a contest sponsored by home-sharing company Airbnb to spend the night 20 meters underground.
Visitors to Paris can tour the dark, 322 kilometer underground labyrinth (though the website warns the tour is unsuitable for 鈥減eople with heart or respiratory problems, those of a nervous disposition and young children鈥) but they don鈥檛 generally get to stay the night.
Arruda, who took his 64-year-old mother for company, doesn鈥檛 fear the millions of dead roommates. The words 鈥淗alt, this is the realm of Death鈥 loom above the entrance, as narrow passages and dark mazes open up into Gothic arrangements of stacked bones. Bodies were transferred there starting in the late 1700s after Paris鈥 public graveyards were closed due to health fears.
The prize includes a double bed in a candle-lit stone chamber and dinner, as well as a violin concert and a storyteller to get them in the Halloween spirit. Airbnb struck a deal with Paris City Hall to donate 300,000 euros (US$331,000) in exchange for using the Catacombs.
Arruda describes himself as a 鈥渉istory nerd鈥 and said he relished the idea of waking up in a site that houses the remains of great men like writers Francois Rabelais and Jean de la Fontaine.
The one drawback to sleeping in a chamber equipped for the dead? There鈥檚 no WC.
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