Paris Underground

Paris Underground from NPR on Vimeo.

        I had a beautiful trip to Paris a few weeks ago.  Well, a virtual one, anyway.  I was driving home when a story on the Paris Underground came onto the radio.  It was a collaboration between National Geographic and NPR and it absolutely mesmerized me.  If the story hadn't ended just as I turned into my street I would have had a driveway moment.

        I had assumed when the story started that it would be about the catacombs, the skeletons, and so on...much the stuff of many a guidebook and tour.  I should have known better--I mean this is NPR and National Geographic after all!  Instead of the well known portions of the sewers and catacombs, this was a journey into a world just below the streets traveled by so many tourists and one that few see.  It offers caving experience to university classes, a place to hold raves for the youth of Paris, and an undiscovered secret world for the daring among us to explore.  It is apparently addictive for some and the cause of a police record for others.  It is illegal to enter the Paris Underground and more than a little dangerous.

         The radio program was a companion to the cover article in the February 2011 National Geographic, something which I searched out at the library the following week.  The article was accompanied by maps, diagrams, giving extensive details about the history and more of a scientific viewpoint than the 17 minute NPR story did.  The photos also gave me pictures of the cataphiles (those who love and explore the Underground) and their adventures to put with the audio.  It all got me thinking...

        When I read travel literature, or any book, I don't get the sounds and smells of the journey.  Sometimes there aren't even pictures.  Yet with the best books I am still transported.  All my senses come alive through descriptive and emotive writing and I may well end up cold on a summer's day if that should happen to be what I am reading about.  Multimedia opens many doors to experience a place, and without it some feel bored.  To me, though, sometimes the simplicity of imagination is even more beautiful.  To combine the two as radio does, well, that is perfection.  The magazine story was full of outstanding information and great visuals, but I preferred the NPR audio story.  The missing visual element somehow made the trip that much richer.  My personal experience of Paris combined with the narration and sounds of the story to create an amazing virtual journey.  Thank you to both NPR and National Geographic for the experience.