I call this quarry "ears" after my visit because the network structure has the form of an ear (a central path and branches along that path). The network is poorly ventilated and has a low oxygen level. Official visit conducted with OCRA.

Quarries of Paris - The network located in the Val de Grace hospital.

Beside the stairs Mansart, whose name was chosen in reference to the architect François Mansart, author of many works of consolidation in the hospital of Val de Grace.

A plate shows the depth of the underground quarry with great precision: Height 58 feet 6 inches or 18 meters 9969.

Quarries of Paris - The network located in the Val de Grace hospital.

The old quarries of the Val de Grace are medieval. They were exploited from the 13th century to 16th century.

In 1621, Anne of Austria asked Louis XIII transfer Benedictine nuns of the Convent of Bievre in Paris. The venue was the current location of the Val de Grace.

In 1638, the architect Francois Mansart began construction of a church and an abbey. In digging the foundations, he discovers that he is above old underground quarries. These voids are surveyed, mapped and consolidated. But Mansart spending too much money and who is the architect Lemercier completed the job.

For the purposes of work, workers have built a staircase to the underground quarries and give the name of Mansart.

In the quarries of the 16th in Paris, in the Palais de Chaillot. These quarries have been called "catacombs Trocadero" because a part was used in the Universal Exhibition of 1900 to show the public the geology of the basement. Height 55 feet 4 inches / 17 Metes 8693 (as printed on the wall)

We call these underground quarries "quarries of Chaillot". The size of these quarries was 12 acres originally, but now it remains only a small network of underground tunnels. At Expo 1900, we used a small portion of the underground galleries to present the work of mining and underground quarries. A prototype of the Channel Tunnel was also conducted.

The royal workshop of the underground quarry Gouvieux is located at the end of an appendage of the network of galleries.

Quarries of Paris - Showroom mineralogy of the Rue Saint Jacques.

The showroom mineralogical most famous of Paris is the Salle Saint-Jacques. It was constructed by Major Gambier in the heart of the underground quarry system of the GRS (Great South network), just false catacombs at Denfert-Rochereau, in fact ossuaries in old underground quarries.

The side benches were used to display the site's geological curiosities. At the center of the room, a staircase dummy materialized superposition of limestone beds of the place. Each step was a sample. Originally, the name of each geological layer of rock was inscribed on the front steps of each room but this was very bumpy because too many visitors have visited illegal.

Can be found in certain geological showroom more difficult to access such information.

source: website of Zedou(FR)

The most beautiful passages carved into the stone of the great network of underground quarries of the south of Paris.