Mother and son spend Halloween night in Paris catacombs

As Halloween festivities began on Saturday (October 31) night, 28-year-old Pedro and his mother Monica prepared to spend the night in the company of millions of human skeletons 20 meters beneath the world of the living.

The Brazilian mother and son will become the first people to legally spend the night in the Paris catacombs, the 200-year-old ossuary that's home to more than 6 million skeletons.

Pedro says his mother had always wanted to visit Paris, but he never expected he'd invite her to spend the trip underground.

"Bringing your mother to the catacombs is not the textbook idea of doing something nice for her but she always wanted to come to Paris. I was like, yeah, you can come to Paris with me, but there's a catch," he said.

Pedro, who hails from Belo Horizonte in Brazil, was chosen out of thousands of participants in a sweepstakes organised by home sharing website Airbnb, after submitting an essay about why he was brave enough to make it through the night.

"Well, I told them how brave I was, how I can drink orange juice right after brushing my teeth, basically. How I was a brave child, how I was going to grow up real fearless. They liked it and they invited me here," he said.

He and his mother were treated to a candlelight dinner as a string quartet played classical music that echoed through the galleries of the former limestone quarries.

A large bed stood in the middle of the room, which was lined with tall stacks of human skulls and femurs.

The partnership between the website and the Paris catacombs will help fund renovations at the historical landmark, Partnership Director of Airbnb Anne-Sophie Frenove said.

"It's a partnership between Airbnb and the Paris catacombs, Paris museums, which is more of a global idea to really make this cultural monument shine, but also to be able to renovate part of the catacombs," Frenove said.

French conservatives have reprimanded Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo for her choice to rent out the catacombs, saying she should have brought the issue up before the city council before making a decision.

"At this rate and without debate, when will they rent out Pere Lachaise cemetery for a concert?" conservative party Les Republicains wrote in a statement on October 13.

They added that the French civil code specifies respect for the human body "does not end after death".

Paris is Airbnb's most popular destination, with more than 50,000 listings in the French capital.

The company has run similar promotions in the past, including offering a night in a gondola at the posh French ski resort Courchevel and another at Paris department store Galeries Lafayette during this year's winter sales. — Reuters