A roundup of the most celebrated legends and mysterious places in Paris.
In October 1873, a devastating fire swept through the music conservatory on rue Le Peletier while the Opéra Garnier was under construction. Among the victims? A young man, destined for a brilliant career as a pianist, who was composing a piece or organ music for his fiancée (a young ballerina) was engulfed in flames. When several disastrous events in the building occurred afterwards, the legend of the Phantom of the Opera was born.
That's all it took to suspect the existence of a ghost, that of the pianist, haunting the Opera's subterranean basement. It was also rumoured that the theatre directors of the time paid a large monthly sum of money to a mysterious individual, who also demanded to book the opera house’s box number 5. The mystery remains, not least because, against all expectations, the pianist survived this tragic event. Afterwards, he chose to live in hiding in the underground passageways of the Opéra Garnier until his death a few years later.
This legend was the source of inspiration for a key work of French literature: “Le Fantôme de l'Opéra” by Gaston Leroux. This famous novel inspired many other works: a ballet with choreography by Roland Petit, musicals, films, comic books, music albums, TV films, etc.
‘There is a ghost in the Louvre! Such was the strange rumour circulating in our national museum on the morning of 17 May 1925,’ wrote writer Arthur Bérnède in his serial novel published in Le Petit Parisien. Inspired by the Phantom of the Opera, the author created a ghost that roamed the corridors of the Louvre Museum. Historically, Belphegor is both a Moabite deity and a demon of laziness and invention. Horned, bearded and with hooked fingers, he takes the form of a young woman to lure his victims. Invisible murmurs, a palpable presence... It didn't take long for the legend - the product of the author's imagination and amplified by the TV series and films of the same name - to spread rapidly. It became rumoured that the Louvre was haunted, and that a spirit had even taken possession of the Egyptian mummies ... The stories varied, but the idea remained the same: you are never alone in the museum.
Could the most famous Parisian gardens - the Tuileries Gardens - be haunted? The story began in 1564, when the Tuileries Palace was built on the site of former tile factories near the Louvre. Commissioned by Queen Catherine de Médicis, the project involved the eviction of several inhabitants, including a butcher known as Jean l’Écorcheur. He refused to leave, and had the advantage of knowing some of the Queen's secrets, which prompted the Queen to ask the chevalier Neuville - one of her loyal men-at-arms - to solve the problem by ousting - if not more - the rebel. Just before he died, the butcher made the threat: ‘I'll be back’ and predicted that the queen would die ‘near Saint-Germain’. Although the Queen avoided places with this name for a long time, her confessor on her deathbed was called Julien de Saint-Germain ... Curse or coincidence? Since then, the Little Red Man has visited some of history's most eminent figures before their fateful end: Marie-Antoinette before the fall of the monarchy, Napoleon before the battle of Waterloo, Louis XVIII a few days before his death … He was said to have been seen for the last time during the Commune in May 1871 during the fire at the Tuileries Palace. It would seem that Jean l’écorcheur finally got his revenge.
The Paris Catacombs are an underground network of tunnels and chambers containing the bones of over six million people. Visitors often report strange sensations and ghostly apparitions in these dark and oppressive tunnels. These bones from various Parisian cemeteries are associated with numerous legends of ghosts haunting the area.
Parisian cemeteries are places steeped in fascinating stories and frightening legends, where ghosts seem to haunt the shady alleys. The most famous of these, the cimetière du Père Lachaise, attracts visitors not only for its illustrious tombs, but also for the tales of ghosts that roam there. The spirits of composer Frédéric Chopin and writer Oscar Wilde are said to prowl among visitors, creating a mysterious atmosphere. Some claim to have seen figures or heard whispers near their graves.
Other Parisian cemeteries, such as the Montmartre Cemetery and the Montparnasse Cemetery, are also full of similar legends. In Montmartre, stories of ghostly apparitions in dark corners add to the mystique of the place: Dalida's ghost, the spectre of lovers or the cats of Montmartre... In the 14th arrondissement, the cimetière du Montparnasse is also the scene of mysterious legends: the shadow of Baudelaire, the Dame in Black and the Mysterious Guardian...
Among the persistent and mysterious legends in Paris, we can also mention :
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Paris has a number of ‘ghost’ stations and metro lines, i.e. infrastructures that are abandoned, unfinished or simply closed to the public, but which continue to fuel the collective imagination. Here is a list of these mysterious places:
To have some fun with friends or family, some Parisian escape games offer thrilling experiences:
And then there are fake buildings, or trompe-l'œil! These are buildings that are not intended to be lived in, but whose facades reflect the architectural elements of the surrounding buildings. For example, some RATP rectifier stations or EDF transformers are concealed behind facades that you would never suspect were fake. (54 rue des Petites Écuries in the 10th, 141 boulevard Diderot in the 12th, 53 rue des Archives in the 3rd, 27 rue Bergère in the 9th, 14 rue Duvergier in the 19th).
Several RATP ventilation shafts are completely integrated into Paris's architectural landscape, hidden behind fake facades. The most well-known one of these is at 145 rue La Fayette in the 10th arrondissement, a few steps from the Gare du Nord behind which is hidden an air vent of the RER B! An there are others: 44 rue d'Aboukir in the 2nd, 3 rue de l'Aqueduc in the 10th arrondissement, 147 rue du faubourg Saint-Denis, etc.
These unusual and offbeat activities will be sure to make your Paris stay a memorable one!
