Bones, Bones and More Bones

We didn't see enough cemeteries and dead people on Saturday, so on Sunday we went to the Paris Catacombs to do a tour.

The Paris Catacombs was on both Christal's and Duane's must do list.  For Duane, he had been to Paris three times and had not yet been able to do the catacombs tour.

We were smart and bought our tickets ahead of time on line.  Trust us, you will want to do this. If you don't then you are standing in a VERY long line for hours waiting to purchase a ticket to get in. The line was around the block prior to opening for the day!

Here we are, waiting in our very short line to enter the catacombs.  All those facing us are waiting to purchase tickets to get in. We were the second small group to get in!

Starting the Tour

When you start the tour, you begin at the top of a very long and curved stair case.  The tour takes you down 132 stairs (60 feet) below the Paris subway and sewer systems.  The tour starts by talking about how the caves and catacombs were built utilizing the limestone.

Throughout the tour, the walls will have an alpha numeric code like the one below.  This lets you know who and when this tunnel was originally inspected and started to be used to hold the bones of Parisians,

In this case this is the 65th structural pillar signed off on by Inspection Generale' des Carrieres during the year 1781.

Starting the Walk through the Catacombs

The walk through the Catacombs takes a little getting used to.  Piled up on both sides of you are the skulls femurs of more than 6 million Parisians.  To help with health issues back in the 1700s, King Louie decreed that all cemeteries must be removed from the city limits and the grave sites actually opened to remove the bones and place them underground.

Through out the walk you will see where the bones being stacked were used to create a little artwork.

Christal and Kelly walking from one room of bones to the St Mary's Fountain that was located in one of the rooms.

There was many plaques with information on them through out the tour, too bad they were all in French as I bet it mad for interesting reading.  We had audio tour sets that gave us some details, but probably not as much as these plaques.

One of the last rooms we saw on the tour had a giant vase made out of bones.  The story goes that during the early 1800s this section was used for private late night parties where they would have the very rich of Paris society come down to listen to an orchestra, dance etc.

Back to the Land of the Living

Once we made our way back up to above ground we wondered the streets near the catacombs for a little while.

We found a nice little corner bistro to stop and have a few drinks at.  One of the fun things on their food menu was an XXL burger "for the greedies" as it said on the menu.

                              

Two of the nice bottles we had while people watching at the bistro, 

 Across from our bistro was a quaint little meat, cheese and bread shop that was quite busy while we sat there.  It provided our group some creativity and we decided to do a picnic in the park that afternoon since we had not eaten lunch yet.  With it being Sunday, shops were getting ready to close for the day so the guys scurried to get the needed picnic supplies.

 Have wine will travel!

Every picnic needs a dessert and in Paris, finding a mouth watering pastry for dessert is never a problem.  This display happens to belong to a place right at our subway stop by our hotel.  They also wrap the pastries up in cute paper so they do not get damaged walking home or to your destination.

What a Lovely Day for  a Picnic

Sunday was a gorgeous day for a picnic and most of Paris was out enjoying the day at the park by the Eiffel Tower.

                                    

 The three ladies are all smiles after a picnic of meat, cheese, wine, bread and pastries.

Dinner Time!

For dinner, since it was going to be the last one in Paris when all 3 couples were together (Davin and Christal were leaving for southern France the next day), we went to La Fontaine Mars since we enjoyed it so much the first Sunday in Paris.

For an appetizer, we again ordered some escargots and foie gras...when it is this good, it is ok to order it for every meal.

                            

 We also went with the Malbec from the meal last Sunday as it paired well with everything.

 Tari went with the sea bass for dinner that night

 Davin got adventurous and tried the black sausage, also known as blood sausage.  We all tried it as it did peak our curiosity.  I think we were all in agreement that is was better than we expected and did not taste irony as we had thought it might.  Not sure if we could eat a whole meal of it though. 

Duane got the steak with Bearnaise sauce.  It is interesting to see what the French will put a sauce on.

Christal got the salmon on spinach while Jamie and Kelly both went with items that were ordered the previous visit.  Jamie got the cassoulet and Kelly did duck....again.

Go to 6/5/17