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Les UX—short for Urban eXperiment in reporting about the group—is described as an anonymous Parisian collective that explored neglected spaces and sometimes turned them into places for cultural events or restoration work. Its best-known underground story is a clandestine cinema discovered by police in 2004. That cinema was not part of the public Paris Catacombs: it was reported to be in the wider, restricted network of former quarries beneath the city.
Who are Les UX?
Journalists have described Les UX as a secretive collective rather than a conventional organization with a public membership list or official institutional history. Accounts portray its members as urban explorers who sought out neglected spaces and, in some cases, repurposed or restored them. The name is commonly expanded as Urban eXperiment in those accounts.
Hackaday’s 2019 article reports that the group’s beginnings date to around 1981 and links it to projects including an underground cinema and a reported restoration of the Pantheon clock. Those details come from journalism about a clandestine group, not an independently established official archive. The accounts should be read as reporting, with some information resting on participants’ descriptions.
What was the Paris underground cinema?
In a 2011 feature republished by Longreads, journalist Sean Michaels recounts police discovering a clandestine cinema beneath Paris in 2004. Gizmodo’s expanded account identifies La Mexicaine de la Perforation (LMDP) as the group associated with the cinema and describes it as one team within a larger UX structure, drawing in part on the testimony of Lazar Kunstmann and his book L’UX: La Culture en clandestins.
The reporting describes more than a screening room: the space reportedly included a bar, lounge, workshop, dining area, and cinema. These are details from accounts of the discovery, not an official inventory or a public venue description. The incident became a compelling story because it joined an unlikely cultural project to a hidden urban landscape—and because the space was unauthorized.
How is the cinema different from the Paris Catacombs?
“The Catacombs” is often used casually for the underground quarry network, but the name also refers to the official Paris Municipal Ossuary and its designated visitor route. They are not interchangeable. The official museum route passes through former quarry tunnels to the ossuary; the wider quarry labyrinth is not a public extension of that attraction.
| Experience | Purpose and character | Access and evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Paris Catacombs visitor circuit | A museum and memorial route through former quarry tunnels to the ossuary, whose history is documented by the institution. | Legal public access is limited to the official visitor circuit. The Catacombes de Paris provides the site history and visitor guidance. |
| Les UX and reported underground projects | Journalistic accounts describe exploration, cultural activity, and interventions in neglected spaces, including the reported LMDP cinema. | Accounts describe activity outside the official visitor circuit as unauthorized and illegal. Group history and project details are reported by Hackaday, Longreads, and Gizmodo. |
The official Catacombs history estimates that the quarry labyrinth beneath Paris extended over approximately 800 hectares. That figure describes the broader underground network, not the museum route or an area open to visitors. The institution gives an undated estimate of nearly 550,000 visitors yearly; it is not a dated annual count.
Why were bones moved into the quarries?
The ossuary’s origins lie in late-eighteenth-century concerns about overcrowded cemeteries and public health. Paris authorities selected former Tombe-Issoire quarries beneath the plain of Montrouge for bone transfers. After ground collapses, the municipal quarry inspection service had been established in 1777 to consolidate abandoned quarries; Charles-Axel Guillaumot oversaw preparation of the site and the transfers.
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The official institutional chronology shows that the ossuary developed over decades, not in a single event:
- 1780: The Saints-Innocents cemetery closed.
- 1785–1787: The first transfers from Saints-Innocents took place.
- April 7, 1786: The site was consecrated as the Paris Municipal Ossuary.
- Through 1814: Transfers from other Paris parish cemeteries continued.
- From 1840 through 1860: Transfers resumed during work associated with Haussmann-era transformations.
- 1809: The Catacombs opened to visitors by appointment.
Burial transfers and the later arrangement of the ossuary are distinct stages in its history. The official account is available on the Catacombs’ site history page.
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What does the story say about heritage and trespass?
Accounts of UX invite a real civic question: can unofficial intervention preserve or animate neglected heritage, or does it cross a line that belongs to landowners, public institutions, and safety authorities to enforce? The reported cinema and restoration projects make the first possibility vivid; the clandestine setting makes the risks and limits equally important. Cultural purpose does not make restricted access lawful or safe.
The official ossuary, by contrast, is a documented memorial institution with a managed visitor route. Its entrance bears the inscription “Arrête, c’est ici l’empire de la mort.” The contrast is not simply between a dull museum and an exciting hidden world: it is between a public site with an accountable route and a wider underground environment that is not open for exploration.
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The official Catacombs visitor page displayed a 1,500-meter route 20 meters below street level and listed 2026 admission at €31 full rate, €25 reduced, €15 for ages 8–17, and free for ages 0–7. The page showed Tuesday–Sunday opening from 9:45 to 20:30, with last admission at 19:30, and recommended booking online. These details can change; check the official Catacombs visitor site before making plans.
According to the official visitor guidance, passageways are uneven and slippery, the site is not wheelchair accessible, and visitors must not touch bones or surroundings. Paid admission includes an audio guide, available in French, English, Spanish, and German. The official useful information page provides current access and conduct guidance.
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