4-June: 4th Day in Paris

The last two days, we have been making excellent use of our 2-day museum pass, so today it was time to move on to other things.  This morning we went straight to the Catacombes de Paris (just to let you know, because we had a little trouble finding it, the entrance is a small black building to the lion statue's left at Place Denfert-Rochereau, right outside of the Metro station).  I readthat the line to get inside can sometimes come with waits of an hour or more, but we got lucky and went straight in, no line at all!  We went down a steep and narrow spiral staircase to get to what was the old stone mines of Paris.  In the 18th century, the Parisians began to exhume bodies from graveyards inside the city and pile them up in the tunnels of the mine.

There were thousands of bones piled from floor to ceiling on both sides of the pathway.  The ceiling was low, and it made me and Meghan feel very tall.  It was really eerie to be surrounded by all of the remains of the dead and to walk through them.  Pictures were hard to take because we couldn't use flash.  It was a good idea to bring a flashlight too, it was interesting to see how deep the bones went.

After the walk through the catacombs we stopped at a Starbucks so Meghan could get here fix!  Next, we headed towards the Luxembourg gardens, passing through other gardens on the way.  It was around lunch time and the park was filled with students.  How nice that must be to take a lunch break in a nice place like that.  We stopped there for a while to enjoy the scenery and the nice weather we have had for the last few days.

This must have been a morbid day, because we went to Père Lachaise Cemetery next.  This is the burial place of Jim Morrison, Fryderyk Chopin, and Oscar Wilde, as well as a bunch of famous Frenchies that we didn't know.  Jim Morrison's grave was much smaller than expected and had a barrier around it.  Oscar Wilde's grave was interesting as well, the entire tomb was covered with lipstick kisses.

After we left the Cemetery, we decided to come back to the hotel and rest our feet for a little bit (Meghan wouldn't let Tres take a nap.....because he wouldn't sleep at night then, right?). We stayed at the hotel for a little over an hour and washed some clothes. Meghan took pictures of the (tiny) bathroom which is where we hang the clothes line and obviously do all of the washing (as you can see in the picture to the left). Check out the pictures in the gallery to see how tiny the shower is that we have to use =( Makes me miss American showers! lol

Once we were finished washing clothes, we decided it was time to eat....our Haribo gummy bears and Cadbury chocolate sticks weren't doing the trick to satisfy our hunger. So, we headed in the direction of Moulin Rouge and ended up at a crepe stand (figures...). Moulin Rouge was packed with tourists taking pictures, so of course we took pictures, too......see? We decided it was best not to take pictures of the other sites around Moulin Rouge because, well, it wasn't a very appropriate place and the pictures would not be Mommy (nor Meghan, Tres, little Jimmy, etc) friendly.

On to Sacre Coeur...a really beautiful Catholic church which boasts that it has had someone in there praying constantly for over 125 years. It is a beautiful basilica complete with a gigantic dome, two bronze statues of Joan of Arc and King Saint Louis IX, as well as a great view of Paris. The view from the dome and/or steps of Sacre Coeur is claimed to be the best in all of Paris -- better than the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. We sat on the steps of the church until it finally became dark (which is at least 10:30 PM in this city -- I know, we still can't get over how much light there is in the city at 10PM but it's the honest truth!), and then finally came back to the hotel. It was a great way to spend our last day here in Paris, but I can assure you that we are DEFINITELY ready to move on to less stinky people, crazy drivers, and rude attitudes!! On to Brussels tomorrow!