February 17, 2026 • 11 mins
Paris may be the City of Lights, but it's also home to a lot of curious tales.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
Gabrielle was born in eighteen eighty three in western France.
Her childhood was destined to be a difficult one. Her
mother died when she was twelve, and her father wasn't
willing to look after her and her siblings, so he
left them in the care of nuns and never came back.
The nuns impact on Gabrielle would be unexpected. She hated
how strict and chase they were. She saw the glamour
(00:57):
and the riches of nearby Paris, and and to understand
why anyone would intentionally live a life of poverty. However,
the nuns did teach her the important skills she needed.
They taught her how to sew and clean. She developed
a preference for a clean home and immaculate hygiene, and
these skills and traits would define her life and even
lead her to change the world. By the time Gabrielle
(01:20):
was twenty, she was living in Paris and pursuing that
glamorous life. She used her sewing skills to open up
a hat shop in nineteen ten, which immediately became a success.
Some of the local cabaret performers took to wearing her hats,
making them even more popular throughout the country. She soon
began designing dresses as well. Gabrielle's preference for immaculate hygiene
(01:42):
led her to notice that some of her rich clients
were actually less hygienic than her. She thought many of
them even smelled. She learned more about the world of perfumes,
which up until this point was still not widely used.
They had existed for millennia, but the advent of modern
chemistry meant that safe synthetic fragrance says could be developed
that were affordable and would last on the skin for
(02:03):
a long time, and so Gabrielle immediately commissioned a whole
variety of perfumes, and she eventually settled on a scent
that she wanted to sell. Not only would it make
her money, but it would keep her from having to
smell the bo of her clients as she fitted them
for hats and dresses. All throughout the nineteen twenties, Gabrielle
became a Paris fashion icon. In addition to her popular perfume,
(02:26):
she also invented the first little black dress, which is
a simple and slim dress in contrast to the big
gowns of previous decades. She had liberated women's fashion, but
she wasn't exactly a feminist. More than anything, she just
wanted success and the money and power that came with it.
She wanted to be a part of high society to
show that she was more than just an orphan raised
(02:48):
by nuns, and so all throughout the nineteen thirties, Gabrielle
became known for having affairs with powerful men. At first
this was members of high society in France, but soon
she was even in English royalty and friendly with the
likes of people like Winston Churchill. And because of all
of this, you would think that she would have sided
with the Allies when World War II darkened over Europe,
(03:11):
But again, all Gabrielle cared about was her own success.
When the Nazis conquered France, Gabrielle quickly struck up an
affair with German officer Hans Gunter von Dinklich. In addition
to having the most German name imaginable, he was also
a spy tasked with infiltrating the French resistance. This seems
to have been Gabrielle's most long lived and passionate affair.
(03:32):
The fact that the Nazis were conquerors and anti Semites
didn't seem to bother her. The reality is that most
of the Western world was pretty anti Semitic at the time.
It was a matter of degrees to her. The English, French,
and Americans tended to segregate Jews and keep them from
positions of power, but they drew the line systematically murdering
them like the Germans did. Gabrielle, however, took full advantage
(03:55):
of the Nazis' anti Semitic laws. She had a few
Jewish business partners with a stake in her business, and
she tried to essentially steal their stake from them under
Nazi laws that stated Jews couldn't own their own businesses.
This ultimately failed when those Jewish partners smartly sold their
stake to a different French industrialist before fleeing to the
United States. Toward the end of the war, as the
(04:17):
Nazis continued to lose ground, Gabrielle and Hans tried to
save face by negotiating a truce behind Hitler's back with
Winston Churchill, but the Allies weren't interested. They continued their
advance and retook Paris, arresting Gabrielle in nineteen forty four.
Hans fled to Switzerland while Gabrielle was a Nazi collaborator.
(04:37):
It seems that the Allies felt that she wasn't responsible
for any crimes, and she was released. Some believe her
connections with English high society just might have had a
hand in that, but her time as a collaborator remained
a stain on her legacy. She never again had the
same prominence in the fashion world and died bitter and
alone in nineteen seventy one. Today, gabriel Coco Chanel, as
(05:00):
she was better known, is respected for her contributions to
the fashion world. Her perfume Chanelle number five is still
in use, and of course, the Black Little Dress is
practically its own genre of clothing. Naturally, the extent of
her anti Semitism and collaboration with the Nazis will always
be debated. Curiously, her insatiable desire for power actually undermined
(05:22):
her success in the long run. If she had remained
loyal to France, she would be remembered today as the
saintly godmother of all modern fashion. Maybe she should have
listened to those nuns, after all. Paris, one of the
(05:48):
most beautiful cities in the world, is famous for many things,
the Eiffel Tower, of course, Notre Dame Cathedral, the River Senn.
It's also famous for its mysterious and macab network of
underground tunnels metcones, which pass beneath every part of the
city and are estimated to hold the remains of over
six million people. Those tunnels were built from old quarries
(06:08):
left over from the Roman Empire and span over one
hundred and seventy miles. When Parisian cemeteries began to overflow
in the seventeen hundreds, millions of bodies were transferred from
where they had been laid to rest in cemeteries to
the underground tunnels. There are so many bodies down there
that one sign above a public entrance reads, stop the
Empire of Death lies here. Now. It must be said
(06:31):
that only a very small section is open for tourists
to explore, while other areas are used for municipal purposes
like sewer maintenance and in some cases training exercises for
law enforcement. And in two thousand and four, a branch
of the Paris Police Department set out to do exactly that,
odd as it may seem. Officers use the unusual environment
to practice traversing difficult terrain and to check for anyone
(06:54):
illegally visiting. On this occasion, officers entered through a sewer
drain beside the Trocadero, not far from the Eiffel Tower.
Almost immediately they discovered something unusual, a large tarp blocking
a previously uncharted passage with a sign saying building site
no access. Thinking that it may be part of the
training exercise, the police pulled back the tarp to reveal
(07:16):
a desk and a closed circuit TV camera, which recorded
anyone who passed by the tarp, including the officers themselves.
When someone passed in front of the camera, a box
on the desk played a recording of snarling and barking dogs.
The police quickly realized that this was no exercise, and
the advanced security and camera equipment made it clear these
(07:38):
were no teenagers exploring the creepy underground on a dare.
This was something more sinister. They had no choice but
to push forward. Further down the tunnel opened into a
huge cavern, and inside the rock had been carved into
seats and benches for people to sit in. Investigators found an
enormous movie screen and projection equipment, along with a collection
(07:59):
of mood movies. None of the films were offensive and
none of them had been banned. On the far side
of the cavern was another room with a makeshift bar
and a restaurant, nice bottles of spirits, tables and chairs,
even a pressure cooker, even strangers. Still, the restaurant and
bar were clearly running on electricity and impossibility in the catacombs,
(08:20):
given that they were carved out centuries ago. One police
officer said there were at least three phone lines down there.
So who was responsible for the clandestine and I must
say illegal cinema tucked inside Paris's deadliest tunnels. Well it
didn't take long for one group to take the credit.
Lay UX short for Urban Experiment, is a secret organization
(08:44):
taking on urban renewal projects all over Paris, which the
French government lacks funding for or chooses not to pursue.
In the nineteen nineties, lay Ux restored several medieval crips
beneath the city by creating underground workshops and accessing them
after hours. Two thousand and seven, they secretly restored the
Pantheon's clock with the help of expert clockmaker Jean Baptiste Void.
(09:06):
The clock was originally made in eighteen fifty one and
had stopped working in the early nineteen sixties. Restoration took
over a year and was mostly done at nights in
secret in a workshop set up by LAYUX members. When
the clock was fully repaired and Layux took public responsibility,
the Center for National Monuments in France attempted to bring
(09:27):
charges against the group, but ultimately they failed. The spokesman
for this otherwise secret society, Lazar Kunzmann, explained that in
September of nineteen eighty one, Layux stole comprehensive maps of
the catacombs from the city planning office, and these maps
are instrumental to the planning and success of the group's
projects and a key reason that its members are able
(09:49):
to keep their identity secret. As far as the cinema goes.
Police returned the next day with members of the French
Electrical Board. They wanted help finding out where the power
had been routed from, but when they arrived at the
entrance of the cavern, the tarp, the sign and the
camera were all gone. In fact, the entire theater had
been emptied. No pressure cooker, no phone lines, no movie
(10:09):
screens or liquor. The only sign that something had been
in the cavern at all was a scrap of paper
left in the center of the room. Addressed to the
Parisian police. The note said simply, do not come searching
for us. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of
the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
(10:32):
or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky
in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
and television show, and you can learn all about it
over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until next time,
(10:55):
stay curious.
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
Gabrielle was born in eighteen eighty three in western France.
Her childhood was destined to be a difficult one. Her
mother died when she was twelve, and her father wasn't
willing to look after her and her siblings, so he
left them in the care of nuns and never came back.
The nuns impact on Gabrielle would be unexpected. She hated
how strict and chase they were. She saw the glamour
(00:57):
and the riches of nearby Paris, and and to understand
why anyone would intentionally live a life of poverty. However,
the nuns did teach her the important skills she needed.
They taught her how to sew and clean. She developed
a preference for a clean home and immaculate hygiene, and
these skills and traits would define her life and even
lead her to change the world. By the time Gabrielle
(01:20):
was twenty, she was living in Paris and pursuing that
glamorous life. She used her sewing skills to open up
a hat shop in nineteen ten, which immediately became a success.
Some of the local cabaret performers took to wearing her hats,
making them even more popular throughout the country. She soon
began designing dresses as well. Gabrielle's preference for immaculate hygiene
(01:42):
led her to notice that some of her rich clients
were actually less hygienic than her. She thought many of
them even smelled. She learned more about the world of perfumes,
which up until this point was still not widely used.
They had existed for millennia, but the advent of modern
chemistry meant that safe synthetic fragrance says could be developed
that were affordable and would last on the skin for
(02:03):
a long time, and so Gabrielle immediately commissioned a whole
variety of perfumes, and she eventually settled on a scent
that she wanted to sell. Not only would it make
her money, but it would keep her from having to
smell the bo of her clients as she fitted them
for hats and dresses. All throughout the nineteen twenties, Gabrielle
became a Paris fashion icon. In addition to her popular perfume,
(02:26):
she also invented the first little black dress, which is
a simple and slim dress in contrast to the big
gowns of previous decades. She had liberated women's fashion, but
she wasn't exactly a feminist. More than anything, she just
wanted success and the money and power that came with it.
She wanted to be a part of high society to
show that she was more than just an orphan raised
(02:48):
by nuns, and so all throughout the nineteen thirties, Gabrielle
became known for having affairs with powerful men. At first
this was members of high society in France, but soon
she was even in English royalty and friendly with the
likes of people like Winston Churchill. And because of all
of this, you would think that she would have sided
with the Allies when World War II darkened over Europe,
(03:11):
But again, all Gabrielle cared about was her own success.
When the Nazis conquered France, Gabrielle quickly struck up an
affair with German officer Hans Gunter von Dinklich. In addition
to having the most German name imaginable, he was also
a spy tasked with infiltrating the French resistance. This seems
to have been Gabrielle's most long lived and passionate affair.
(03:32):
The fact that the Nazis were conquerors and anti Semites
didn't seem to bother her. The reality is that most
of the Western world was pretty anti Semitic at the time.
It was a matter of degrees to her. The English, French,
and Americans tended to segregate Jews and keep them from
positions of power, but they drew the line systematically murdering
them like the Germans did. Gabrielle, however, took full advantage
(03:55):
of the Nazis' anti Semitic laws. She had a few
Jewish business partners with a stake in her business, and
she tried to essentially steal their stake from them under
Nazi laws that stated Jews couldn't own their own businesses.
This ultimately failed when those Jewish partners smartly sold their
stake to a different French industrialist before fleeing to the
United States. Toward the end of the war, as the
(04:17):
Nazis continued to lose ground, Gabrielle and Hans tried to
save face by negotiating a truce behind Hitler's back with
Winston Churchill, but the Allies weren't interested. They continued their
advance and retook Paris, arresting Gabrielle in nineteen forty four.
Hans fled to Switzerland while Gabrielle was a Nazi collaborator.
(04:37):
It seems that the Allies felt that she wasn't responsible
for any crimes, and she was released. Some believe her
connections with English high society just might have had a
hand in that, but her time as a collaborator remained
a stain on her legacy. She never again had the
same prominence in the fashion world and died bitter and
alone in nineteen seventy one. Today, gabriel Coco Chanel, as
(05:00):
she was better known, is respected for her contributions to
the fashion world. Her perfume Chanelle number five is still
in use, and of course, the Black Little Dress is
practically its own genre of clothing. Naturally, the extent of
her anti Semitism and collaboration with the Nazis will always
be debated. Curiously, her insatiable desire for power actually undermined
(05:22):
her success in the long run. If she had remained
loyal to France, she would be remembered today as the
saintly godmother of all modern fashion. Maybe she should have
listened to those nuns, after all. Paris, one of the
(05:48):
most beautiful cities in the world, is famous for many things,
the Eiffel Tower, of course, Notre Dame Cathedral, the River Senn.
It's also famous for its mysterious and macab network of
underground tunnels metcones, which pass beneath every part of the
city and are estimated to hold the remains of over
six million people. Those tunnels were built from old quarries
(06:08):
left over from the Roman Empire and span over one
hundred and seventy miles. When Parisian cemeteries began to overflow
in the seventeen hundreds, millions of bodies were transferred from
where they had been laid to rest in cemeteries to
the underground tunnels. There are so many bodies down there
that one sign above a public entrance reads, stop the
Empire of Death lies here. Now. It must be said
(06:31):
that only a very small section is open for tourists
to explore, while other areas are used for municipal purposes
like sewer maintenance and in some cases training exercises for
law enforcement. And in two thousand and four, a branch
of the Paris Police Department set out to do exactly that,
odd as it may seem. Officers use the unusual environment
to practice traversing difficult terrain and to check for anyone
(06:54):
illegally visiting. On this occasion, officers entered through a sewer
drain beside the Trocadero, not far from the Eiffel Tower.
Almost immediately they discovered something unusual, a large tarp blocking
a previously uncharted passage with a sign saying building site
no access. Thinking that it may be part of the
training exercise, the police pulled back the tarp to reveal
(07:16):
a desk and a closed circuit TV camera, which recorded
anyone who passed by the tarp, including the officers themselves.
When someone passed in front of the camera, a box
on the desk played a recording of snarling and barking dogs.
The police quickly realized that this was no exercise, and
the advanced security and camera equipment made it clear these
(07:38):
were no teenagers exploring the creepy underground on a dare.
This was something more sinister. They had no choice but
to push forward. Further down the tunnel opened into a
huge cavern, and inside the rock had been carved into
seats and benches for people to sit in. Investigators found an
enormous movie screen and projection equipment, along with a collection
(07:59):
of mood movies. None of the films were offensive and
none of them had been banned. On the far side
of the cavern was another room with a makeshift bar
and a restaurant, nice bottles of spirits, tables and chairs,
even a pressure cooker, even strangers. Still, the restaurant and
bar were clearly running on electricity and impossibility in the catacombs,
(08:20):
given that they were carved out centuries ago. One police
officer said there were at least three phone lines down there.
So who was responsible for the clandestine and I must
say illegal cinema tucked inside Paris's deadliest tunnels. Well it
didn't take long for one group to take the credit.
Lay UX short for Urban Experiment, is a secret organization
(08:44):
taking on urban renewal projects all over Paris, which the
French government lacks funding for or chooses not to pursue.
In the nineteen nineties, lay Ux restored several medieval crips
beneath the city by creating underground workshops and accessing them
after hours. Two thousand and seven, they secretly restored the
Pantheon's clock with the help of expert clockmaker Jean Baptiste Void.
(09:06):
The clock was originally made in eighteen fifty one and
had stopped working in the early nineteen sixties. Restoration took
over a year and was mostly done at nights in
secret in a workshop set up by LAYUX members. When
the clock was fully repaired and Layux took public responsibility,
the Center for National Monuments in France attempted to bring
(09:27):
charges against the group, but ultimately they failed. The spokesman
for this otherwise secret society, Lazar Kunzmann, explained that in
September of nineteen eighty one, Layux stole comprehensive maps of
the catacombs from the city planning office, and these maps
are instrumental to the planning and success of the group's
projects and a key reason that its members are able
(09:49):
to keep their identity secret. As far as the cinema goes.
Police returned the next day with members of the French
Electrical Board. They wanted help finding out where the power
had been routed from, but when they arrived at the
entrance of the cavern, the tarp, the sign and the
camera were all gone. In fact, the entire theater had
been emptied. No pressure cooker, no phone lines, no movie
(10:09):
screens or liquor. The only sign that something had been
in the cavern at all was a scrap of paper
left in the center of the room. Addressed to the
Parisian police. The note said simply, do not come searching
for us. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of
the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
(10:32):
or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky
in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
and television show, and you can learn all about it
over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until next time,
(10:55):
stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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