Sewers Are One Of Paris - France's Top Tourist Attractions?

Yes, that is right folks. One of Paris's top tourist attractions are the sewers but please don t get any funny ideas now. The French look at their sewers differently than us mainly due to their historical influence on the city of Paris to this very day.

The history of the sewer is found not only in the tunnels themselves and their dates of construction, but also in literature, particularly Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, and other similar works where the sewer has powerful symbolic meanings.

I find it a bit hard to believe but Paris has opened their sewers to the public as part of their tourism attraction ever since 1867! It was so popular by the end of the 19th century that small mechanical locomotives were outfitted to cater for the growing number of tourists. It was later replaced by boats and trolleys. It was believed that the Paris sewer trolleys gave way to the idea of the subway system now common everywhere in the world.

Nowadays of course, all the past trolleys and boats are all gone and Paris has organized an even better attraction to showcase their historical sewers. The Mus e des gouts de Paris or the Paris Sewers Museum! It is located in the sewers (where else!) right under the Quai d Orsay (refer to our interactive map).

In a sense, I can understand why Paris is so proud of their sewers. It is their personal testimony of success in providing comfort and public health safety to the community. Then again, a sewer would always be a sewer. Don t expect Paris sewers to be any different than yours back home. They stink! So, enjoy their exotic aromatic heritage while you re down there.