After a late night cruising the city, made even later by my compulsion to blog into the wee hours, we decided to retire the alarm clock and give our weary bodies a chance to catch up naturally.
The result was... walking up after 10 am this morning! Still, a Parisian brunch sitting outside the cafe and watching the world go by is not the worst way to start a day.
We wandered through the city to Notre Dame and tried to get our heads around a 900 year old cathedral, complete with sculpture, stained glass and towering arches. What I loved about Notre Dame was it's simplicity. Unlike many of the other cathedrals I have visited in Europe, this one was fairly basic. I mean it was huge and grand looking, but lacked the gold leafed statues, frescos and treasures that I frequently seen. It was not a showy, opulent display of wealth, but instead was solid, skillfully designed and beautifully built over centuries. Cleverly and thoughtfully added onto and restored over the years. I imagine that in another 900 years it will look similar... despite Paris in general, moving with the times.
Then it was back on the "Hop on, Hop off" bus and our mission became finding the entrance to Paris' catacombs.
Apparently when the cemeteries began overflowing, the city had the bones of 6 million people exhumed and stashed in the underground tunnels that connect the old limestone quarries. Holy crap! That's a lot of creepiness!
The line was long and we were in the good company of varied international and French tourists. Entertainment came in the form of watching folks screw up their noses at the escaping sewer gases and American girls flailing and shrieking about the occasional wasp. (They were convinced it was the Nutella pastry in hand... I was sure the wasps were attracted to hair products and perfume!)
Then we were in. Another two and a half foot wide stone spiral staircase! Instead of going up, like yesterday's experience, we were going down, down, down. The bowels of Paris awaited us. The tunnels were small and dark. This was not a walking tour for the disabled, young, old or "of nervous disposition" as the sign at the entrance had already warned. It was dimly lit and not too different from the catacombs of days gone by, when the tunnels were the links between the limestone quarries.
Mark was in heaven in his jeans and t-shirt in the cold, dark and damp tunnels. I had a sweater on and the air was already giving me chills! About this time, I realized that while I was a Golden Retriver in my past life (I like nothing more than resting my head in his lap and having it scratched), he was probably... Penicillin!
The catacombs were like nothing you could ever imagine. The 33 year old man who was put in charge of arranging the decomposing and skeletal remains of the 6 million Parisians who were overflowing the cemeteries, decided to make ornate piles and collections of the bones so that they would also become an attraction! It worked... Even though that is maybe the creepiest thing I have heard in a long time. The area is called the L'Ossuaire Municipal. A small part of the 200 miles of catacombs, but nonetheless, a compelling one. And the history of the catacombs never got any less bizarre as time went on. In the 1800's some group of young people decided they would organize a concert down there. Select people were invited to attend via a secret entrance and down below, they were entertained by a 45 piece orchestra who play macabre funeral and death themed classical pieces into the wee hours. Rumor has it that even a "few intrepid ladies" attended and at one point a craniologist gave a lecture that involved using one of the real human skulls as a prop!
The self guided audio tour took about an hour and after climbing another hidden staircase to rejoin the land of the living, we found ourselves about a half mile further down the road and began the search, once again for the nearest Hop on, Hop off bus.
It was now after 5 pm and while it might seem, at this point that we had forgotten about Monna Lisa, we had not. The working plan was to picnic in the Tuilerie Gardens then tour the Louvre after dinner... hopefully avoiding long lines on a Wednesday night (as the wise Google had advised).
The Louvre. Yes, most tourists beeline straight for the Monna Lisa, take her picture then leave. While that wasn't our whole plan, I did head straight there. She is a popular woman and I wanted to see for myself if the rumors were true... Did she really follow you with her eyes? Kinda, yeah! Personally I thought it was more that she turned her whole head and that allowed her eyes to stay on you, but as I write it out in front of me, it seems a little crazy now. Too much moldy air today? Not enough sunshine?
The Louvre, if laid out in a straight line, would stretch 8 miles, so it's fair to say that we didn't explore it all. We stuck to the plan which involved French, Italian and Spanish painters, a lot of sculpture and some other stuff. What struck me the most was the Louvre building itself. It's amazing, breathtaking in fact. I loved it's giant spaces and decorated walls, ceilings and floors. Thousands of people were probably there with us, but at times we found ourselves alone and I wondered if this was how the filmed parts of the DaVinci Code!? Just between you and me, I also found myself intrigued by the security of the art. Perhaps spending just as much time looking at how they secured the paintings, the fine wires embedded in the panes of glass of each window, the cameras and motion detectors etc that were everywhere we could see and I expect a darn host of places we could not see.
When the light began to fade, I wondered out loud if they were dimming the lights to get us to leave, before realizing that most of the light was natural and now, after sunset, it was disappearing fast. With each room we passed through on the way to the exit, it got a bit darker. This was unexpected and I rather loved it. The Louvre at night is AWESOME. There is a mood... quiet, erie and solemn.
And all of a sudden you realize every window has a view too!
The result was... walking up after 10 am this morning! Still, a Parisian brunch sitting outside the cafe and watching the world go by is not the worst way to start a day.
Then it was back on the "Hop on, Hop off" bus and our mission became finding the entrance to Paris' catacombs.
Apparently when the cemeteries began overflowing, the city had the bones of 6 million people exhumed and stashed in the underground tunnels that connect the old limestone quarries. Holy crap! That's a lot of creepiness!
The line was long and we were in the good company of varied international and French tourists. Entertainment came in the form of watching folks screw up their noses at the escaping sewer gases and American girls flailing and shrieking about the occasional wasp. (They were convinced it was the Nutella pastry in hand... I was sure the wasps were attracted to hair products and perfume!)
Then we were in. Another two and a half foot wide stone spiral staircase! Instead of going up, like yesterday's experience, we were going down, down, down. The bowels of Paris awaited us. The tunnels were small and dark. This was not a walking tour for the disabled, young, old or "of nervous disposition" as the sign at the entrance had already warned. It was dimly lit and not too different from the catacombs of days gone by, when the tunnels were the links between the limestone quarries.
Mark was in heaven in his jeans and t-shirt in the cold, dark and damp tunnels. I had a sweater on and the air was already giving me chills! About this time, I realized that while I was a Golden Retriver in my past life (I like nothing more than resting my head in his lap and having it scratched), he was probably... Penicillin!
The catacombs were like nothing you could ever imagine. The 33 year old man who was put in charge of arranging the decomposing and skeletal remains of the 6 million Parisians who were overflowing the cemeteries, decided to make ornate piles and collections of the bones so that they would also become an attraction! It worked... Even though that is maybe the creepiest thing I have heard in a long time. The area is called the L'Ossuaire Municipal. A small part of the 200 miles of catacombs, but nonetheless, a compelling one. And the history of the catacombs never got any less bizarre as time went on. In the 1800's some group of young people decided they would organize a concert down there. Select people were invited to attend via a secret entrance and down below, they were entertained by a 45 piece orchestra who play macabre funeral and death themed classical pieces into the wee hours. Rumor has it that even a "few intrepid ladies" attended and at one point a craniologist gave a lecture that involved using one of the real human skulls as a prop!
The self guided audio tour took about an hour and after climbing another hidden staircase to rejoin the land of the living, we found ourselves about a half mile further down the road and began the search, once again for the nearest Hop on, Hop off bus.
It was now after 5 pm and while it might seem, at this point that we had forgotten about Monna Lisa, we had not. The working plan was to picnic in the Tuilerie Gardens then tour the Louvre after dinner... hopefully avoiding long lines on a Wednesday night (as the wise Google had advised).
The Louvre. Yes, most tourists beeline straight for the Monna Lisa, take her picture then leave. While that wasn't our whole plan, I did head straight there. She is a popular woman and I wanted to see for myself if the rumors were true... Did she really follow you with her eyes? Kinda, yeah! Personally I thought it was more that she turned her whole head and that allowed her eyes to stay on you, but as I write it out in front of me, it seems a little crazy now. Too much moldy air today? Not enough sunshine?
The Louvre, if laid out in a straight line, would stretch 8 miles, so it's fair to say that we didn't explore it all. We stuck to the plan which involved French, Italian and Spanish painters, a lot of sculpture and some other stuff. What struck me the most was the Louvre building itself. It's amazing, breathtaking in fact. I loved it's giant spaces and decorated walls, ceilings and floors. Thousands of people were probably there with us, but at times we found ourselves alone and I wondered if this was how the filmed parts of the DaVinci Code!? Just between you and me, I also found myself intrigued by the security of the art. Perhaps spending just as much time looking at how they secured the paintings, the fine wires embedded in the panes of glass of each window, the cameras and motion detectors etc that were everywhere we could see and I expect a darn host of places we could not see.
When the light began to fade, I wondered out loud if they were dimming the lights to get us to leave, before realizing that most of the light was natural and now, after sunset, it was disappearing fast. With each room we passed through on the way to the exit, it got a bit darker. This was unexpected and I rather loved it. The Louvre at night is AWESOME. There is a mood... quiet, erie and solemn.
And all of a sudden you realize every window has a view too!
