cataphile

— At a time when being "in" has meant staying in at night, the city's catacombs, the Gallo-Roman-vintage quarries from which Paris was built, have managed to lure le tout Paris, now known as cataphiles, troglos, and nouvelles taupes ("moles")—and la salle Z, fifteen chambers in the 250 kilometers of vaulted tunnels, has become the endroit of the moment. A stroll from la salle Z brings the cataphiles, by clearly marked street signs, to the underground bunker used by the Germans during the Occupation, or to the underground crystalline fountain of Sainte Marie for a midnight splash, or to the outlying ossuaries where flea-market dealers get the skulls they sell for 300 francs.

— Urban exploration has many subcultures, each with its own fetishes and slang. There are rooftoppers, builderers, cataphiles and those with a taste for "ruin porn" – artfully lit photos of decaying masonry and Rorschach water stains.