HALLOWEEN is definitely not a French tradition. As a matter of fact until only a few years back people here would have given you blank stares had you mentioned the word to them. But today, the world is a market and a citizen of any country is essentially a consumer … or so believes a diehard capitalist.
The latest controversy causing sparks here is a decision by the mayor of Paris authorising a tourism and hotel agency called Airbnb to organise a competition that would offer the winners bed & breakfast for two, free of course, in the catacombs of Paris.
But then you may ask: what on earth are these catacombs for heaven’s sake? Well, the explanation simply is that there used to be an underground mortuary, the biggest graveyard in the world as it was called, along the Left Bank in the old days of Paris. Some six million bodies were buried here until the mid of the nineteenth century.
Coincidentally, here also was discovered a huge limestone mine, and as Paris developed into a vastly modern city under Napoleon III and larger and larger quantities of stone were required, tunnels were dug in to have access to these deposits. The underground burials were banned and, the French being French, all the skulls and bones were rather aesthetically arranged inside isolated halls and caverns in artistic patterns.
A few innovative sculptors also stepped in to create their works, not to make money but as their homage to the permanent residents of the underground ossuary.
Today, as you descend the spiral stone staircase some 20 metres deep, you reach the entrance where a sign warns you: “Stop! Here begins the Empire of the Dead.”
Actually, you don’t need to wait for the Halloween night and can go down and visit these sacred monuments on any day of your choice.
The tourism agency has paid the Paris municipality a sum of 300,000 euros to acquire exclusive rights to organise the event for the night of Oct 31. The advertising campaign has already begun with the message:
Take shelter in the biggest tomb of Paris and satisfy your thirst for adventure by spending the night in the tentacles full of skulls and bones. Nightmare guaranteed! Respect the tranquility of your neighbours, whether dead or alive! No need to bring along a pet animal. You’ll have a monster under your bed!
But not everyone seems to agree that the commercial exploitation of a sacred site is a very good idea. Contacted by a number of journalists a spokeswoman for the mayor of Paris said: “The deal finalised with the tourism agency represents a sizeable economic interest. The project is likely to generate resources that will allow us to renovate and improve this important historical site.”
As far as the organisation in charge of security at historical sites ‘Les Musées de Paris’ is concerned: “There will be no monsters, ghosts or anything of the sort in the catacombs during the night but only about a dozen or so of our guards on duty. Instead of the promised deathly silence, you are most likely to hear our security agents communicating with each other on their walkie-talkies.”
Confirming the disapproval by most Parisians of the project, the daily Le Figaro comments under the headline ‘A mortal night for the Paris Municipality’: “Unless you agree that the dead really deserve no respect and skulls and bones are after all no more than articles of decoration, and unless you are convinced that money has no odour, this Halloween operation appears to be in a very bad taste.”
Protest graffiti slogans have already appeared on the walls of Paris asking: “When is the mayor letting on rent to a tourism agency the Père Lachaise cemetery for a discotheque concert?”
The writer is a journalist based in Paris.
Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2015
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