Been a bit distracted the last few days -- will do a partial catch-up on what's been happening here!
Cindy arrived safely in Paris -- American Airlines had some plane issues in Dallas which resulted in her missing her connection at in London and she got to spend three hours walking around Heathrow. Arrived at the apartment around 10:00pm and jumped right into the spirit of things -- late night dining. Most restaurants here stay open until close to midnight so we decided to grab a pizza at a nice place nearby for take-out (I know, I know -- it's France and not Italy, but it was her first night here and her choice!) Ordered a bottle of wine to sip while we were waiting (figuring we'd take the remainder with us back to the apartment) -- my French language skills came back into play again -- they thought we were going to finish the bottle there, so they kept delaying making the pizza -- almost 11:30 by the time were got on the same page and had our pizza in hand -- so ended up being a late night.
Sunday was another grey, cloudy day so slept in a bit -- then it was up and off to Marche d'Aligre (only a few blocks from the apartment) to do some wandering. Stopped at a boulangerie near the market to get some coffee and croissants -- the sun broke through the clouds and we spent a hour or so sitting outside lazily watching people walk by on their way to the market or returning with their purchases -- a real cross-secion -- peope with bicycles and straw handlebar baskets, babies in strollers, dogs on leashes, old, young, singles, couples -- people with just a few things in a cloth handbag and others towing a week's supply of groceries behind them.
(About forty percent of people here walk around pulling behind them what I can only describe as a two-thirds size rolling piece of soft-sided luggage -- always black -- they have them on the streets, on the Metro, everywhere -- appear to also double as a briefcase or backpack when they're not shopping).
Walked through the crowds admiring the produce -- typically super fresh and quite a variety -- have no clue what some stuff is and most of the vendors don't have a great English vocabulary, so asking what something is, is not really an option. Bought a half flat of strawberries for later (so far have not had a "bad" strawberry in France!) Then casually wandered through the flea market section -- again, nothing either one of us could live without but interesting stuff none the less!
Then back to the apartment for an hour or so to rest a bit and make some lunch.
We both wanted to see the Catacombs of Paris which has a reputation for Disneyland style lines so thought we'd go later in the day when it might not be so crowded -- arrived at about 3:00 -- after two hours and fifteen minutes of standing in line we got to the entrance -- so much for outsmarting the crowds!
The Catacombes structure dates from the Roman times (pre BC) when they began quarrying the limetone for stone blocks which they used to build the walls, fortresses and buildings that were to become Paris. They started with surface mining and progressed to underground mining -- thus creating over two hundred miles of tunnels that are called the Catacombes. By the mid-1700's, the tunnels had been largely forgotten about until they started to collapse under the weight of the buildings, churches, streets, walls, etc... above them.
Around the same time, merchants began complaining to Louis XVI about the impact on their business of the stench of decomposing bodies that were overpopulating the city's cemeteries -- plus the Church (who made a whole lot of money on funerals and burying parishoners) began lobbying Louie to let them remove the bodies already in the overcrowded churchyards to make room for new occupants. Louis, now under pressure from two of his main supporter groups, came up with the idea of transferring the remain to the tunnels under Paris and began the process of relocating the bones and remains from the churchyards to the carved-out tunnels -- by the first part of the 1800's, over six million remains had beeen "re-positioned" into the Catacombs. All of this was done in a very orderly fashion -- the bodies were sytematically removed from the charnal houses surrounding the city's cemeteries and the remains were dug-up from the graveyards -- loaded on wagons -- and from sundown to sunup were taken in processions to the Catacombes with priests following the wagons chanting the prayer of the dead -- every night for almost twenty years. Upon reaching the tunnels, the bodies were taken to the section reserved for that churchyard and neatly stacked -- ten or twelve rows of bones then a row of skulls then more rows of bones and more skulls until the pile almost reached the ceiling -- eight to ten feet high, thirty feet deep and thirty to forty feet wide depending upon the tunnel -- all done by the light of a few burning torches attached to the tunnel walls. Today, the tunnels and the bones are referred to as "Les Catacombes".
We entered by climbing down a steep spiral staircase cut into the rock walls -- eighty steps each about twelve inches tall with only a thin, worn metal railing to clutch onto -- miss a step and you don't stop bouncing until you reach the bottom. At the bottom, you enter the tunnels -- probably eight feet wide and begin to walk down dimly lit "hallways" that twisted and turned, on an uneven dirt and stone floor until you came to the first of many openings cut back into the walls -- stacked with bones -- the tour only covers about eighty to a hundred yards of bone stacks but is overwhelming. Cindy took most of the photos-- my camera isn't great and seeing as the Catacombes are "holy ground", no flash photography is permitted. Then it was back up seventy-two (yes, I counted) steep stone stairs to the surface.
It was close to 7:00pm so we decided to get something to eat at a brassiere and then go to the Eiffel Tower. Arrived at the tower around 9:00pm -- still daylight -- still hundred of people waiting in line to ascend it. Got up to the first viewing platform just in time to watch the sun set amidst pink, blue and orange skies -- impressive! Walked around looking at the city lights for a while, then the light show began -- the entire tower is lit up by flashing lights -- kind of like a sparkler -- talk about a "WOW" effect!!
Finally, we took the ricketty elevator up to the top -- turns out it was scarier in the daytime than at night! Beautful view from the top and gives you perspective as to how large Paris really is. Left around11:00pm and arrived back at the apartmetn about forty-five minutes later, exhausted but happy for having had a spectacular day.
