San Francisco Frontiers - Dead quiet: Paris Catacombs close for renovations

The Paris Catacombs, underground galleries that are the final resting place for millions of bodies disinterred from the capital's cemeteries between the Middle Ages and the French Revolution, are to become modernised, with better ventilation, lighting and an improved layout.

The works, costing 5.5 million euros ($6.4 million), are designed to improve the experience for the 600,000 annual visitors to the ossuary museum -- and to help preserve the remains held there.

The moisture build-up in the catacombs, which drips into puddles on the ground and on visitors "is bad for the preservation of bones," the site's administrator, Isabelle Knafou said, as she gave AFP a last look before the temporary closure.

That humidity allows the bacteria to settle and grow on the piled-up skeletal remains.

Renovations will aim to reduce that problem, while also restructuring the near 800-metre (2,600-foot) path visitors follow during visits, all the while aiming to keep the "authentic" spirit of the place, Knafou said.

Graffiti that has been painted in some spots will be cleaned off, though Knafou said that much of the writing found on the galleries' walls was left by visitors in the 19th century and "almost" contributes to the place's history.

She said that, because of the rampant theft of some of the femurs, tibias and skulls in the past, the bones were now cemented together.

She added that "some visitors -- Americans, notably -- come to scare themselves a little, without being aware that these are real human bones".

"These are our ancestors, and we explain that no-one wants someone to fiddle or play with the skull of their grandmother."

R.Moore--SFF