by Michael Mandaville

Author of "A Cold Death", "Stealing Thunder" and Filmmaker

Murder requires a certain sensitivity.   After the crime, where could I hide?  How can I mess with the police?  What clues would I seek to cover up?

Paris is an ideal choice.  Because the Paris police don't even know what's going on under their own feet.  Literally.  

A few years ago, a Special Group in the Paris Police Department were on a training exercise and made a surprise discoveryin the Catacombs under the Palais de Chaillot.  Right across the from Eiffel Tower in the City of Light's famed 16th Arrondisement, they discovered a movie theater.   An underground movie theater. That's right.

Gendarmes found the entrance through a drain near the famed Trocadero at the Palais de Chaillot.   Marked off with a tarp marked "Building site, No Access", the police discovered a closed-circuit TV system and were surprised by vicious barking dogs - which proved to be a recording triggered by a motion detector.   The system was mean to frighten off any uninvited guests.

The Paris Police and a Special Group are tasked with monitoring the one hundred and seventy miles of underground tunnels, galleries, caves and catacombs under Paris' boulevards, buildings and landmarks.  The miles of Parisian tunnels stem from the city's early quarries, from Roman times, when the area was the tribal home of the Parisii.  But if a city can keep its secrets so close that even the police are shocked, then that's a perfect city in which to commit murder.

Asked who built the unusual movie theater, a French police spokesman said, "We have no idea whatsoever.  There were two swastikas painted on the ceiling, but also Celtic crosses and several stars of David, so we don't think it's extremists. Some sect or secret society, maybe. There are any number of possibilities."

The police moved past the dog barking recorder down almost eighty feet into a massive cave which was at least four hundred square meters, carved out like amphitheatre with terraces cut into the rock and plenty of chairs.   The theater would make the local Bijou jealous with a full-sized screen, projectors and a considerable film library with primarily film noir classics and thrillers.  Since none of the films were banned, the theater must've catered to true cinephiles.  

And the theater had a bar and restaurant area.  A police spokesman noted that "there were bottles of whisky and other spirits behind a bar, tables and chairs, a pressure-cooker for making couscous."   The setup included a professionally installed electrical system.  And three phone lines.   When the police returned to trace the power source, they found a simple note on the floor.  "Do not try to find us."

Les Catacombes can be toured by visitors where one underground area, created as the "Empire of Death" in the 1700's , features the skulls and bones of the six million Parisians moved from overcrowded cemeteries.   While it's a legal offence to explore the tunnels and galleries, unique visitors - cataphiles - regularly access the vast system through ventilation shafts and access tunnels.     My novel, "A Cold Death" was sparked by my curiousity about the mysterious theater under the Palais Chaillot - along with newly carved tunnels underneath Paris' high security La Sante prison.  Another setting my novel.

The City of Paris has more mystery than any other city in the world to me.   And remains the best place for me to commit murder.  And never get caught.