Secret Paris cavern found

Click this link. Newsflash: The French can be cool! Even though everyone underground did retreat.

Guardian Unlimited Film | News | In a secret Paris cavern, the real underground cinema:

"Members of the force's sports squad, responsible - among other tasks - for policing the 170 miles of tunnels, caves, galleries and catacombs that underlie large parts of Paris, stumbled on the complex while on a training exercise beneath the Palais de Chaillot, across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower.

After entering the network through a drain next to the Trocadero, the officers came across a tarpaulin marked: Building site, No access.

Behind that, a tunnel held a desk and a closed-circuit TV camera set to automatically record images of anyone passing. The mechanism also triggered a tape of dogs barking, 'clearly designed to frighten people off,' the spokesman said.

Further along, the tunnel opened into a vast 400 sq metre cave some 18m underground, 'like an underground amphitheatre, with terraces cut into the rock and chairs'.

There the police found a full-sized cinema screen, projection equipment, and tapes of a wide variety of films, including 1950s film noir classics and more recent thrillers. None of the films were banned or even offensive, the spokesman said.

A smaller cave next door had been turned into an informal restaurant and bar. 'There were bottles of whisky and other spirits behind a bar, tables and chairs, a pressure-cooker for making couscous,' the spokesman said.

'The whole thing ran off a professionally installed electricity system and there were at least three phone lines down there.'

Three days later, when the police returned accompanied by experts from the French electricity board to see where the power was coming from, the phone and electricity lines had been cut and a note was lying in the middle of the floor: 'Do not,' it said, 'try to find us.'"

Added: 9/08/2004 08:47:00 AM
|

2 Thoughts:

Blogger Julianne said...

you ready for ivan the terrible [god are the media cheesy!]
i was reading this maxim from like 1999 [which panned American Pie as a 'soon forgotten summer film' btw] and it had a guide to taking over france, talking about how easy it is and how they had a 17yr old girl leading their army at one point! lol

9/09/2004 6:14 PM  
Blogger Avitable said...

I think it's impossible to get ready for the third of three hurricanes in a month. I plan on fighting this one head on. I'll be on the roof wearing nothing but a bandana, carrying a shotgun and a chainsaw.

I love Maxim - especially the older issues when they were more interesting. And the French are funny.

9/09/2004 9:19 PM  

|

<< Home