Hi!

Oh my goodness I can't believe it is our last day in Paris! Or in Europe for that matter! The past six weeks have flown by! So today we decided to go see dead people. Josh and I headed to the catacombs of Paris! We had to wait in line for an hour and a half to see bones in an underground cave which is just comical to me. Our society is so weird. We literally wait in line and pay money to look at bones of dead humans stuck in an underground tunnel. What is wrong with us? Hahaha. It was awesome though!

To begin, you must climb down, down, down, down until you are so far under Paris that it is actually a substantially colder temperature than before. Then, you walk through old, stone tunnels that wind under the city. They put up signs along the way that are supposed to teach you about the catacombs but they were extremely boring facts....such as..."lots of dead Parisians are buried here". So I stopped reading them about half way through the tunnels. After walking for a good while, we finally arrived in the first room of bones. It's a weird feeling. It's kinda creepy. You are standing there completely surrounded by dead people's bones that someone has stacked to look like a pretty design. Every way you turn, someone's skull is staring at you. Bleck. It's actually incredible gross if you think about it. Some of the skulls were shiny from being rubbed by people passing through while others had interesting breaks in them that looked like they died from the impact of that break. We starting trying to guess how each of these people had died. Most were probably a battle of some sort or another...

There weren't many people in the tunnels with us. At points, we were completely alone with the dead people. The ceiling was dripping water which enhanced the creepy mood of the place. When you get dripped on in an underground tunnel surrounded by skeletons, it really feels like the water just came out of one of them. Ew. Ew. Ew. The patterns made with the bones were outstanding. I wondered what it would be like to be the person in charge of stacking the bones... After a while, the gross factor faded and the amazement of the situation took over.

Some other people exploring the tunnels didn't do so well.... We saw many people keeled over trying to breathe. Once you are down there, you have to go all the way through to get out. That's the only way back up. Some people didn't enjoy that concept.

After a bit, we found ourselves climbed up stairs and outside again. The sun was blinding and we hid in shade until we could see again. Josh and I headed to Musee D'Orsee from there. We had visited earlier this week for a few hours and loved the museum so much that we went back. The architecture of the museum itself is lovely. It used to be an old train station that has been renovated into the museum it is today. Mostly Impressionism fills the walls. Impressionism is Josh's favorite time period of painting so he was ecstatic! We saw amazing sculptures and beautiful paintings by Monet, Seurat, Van Gogh, Manet and so so many more. This has been my favorite museum we have seen on our trip. If you ever have the chance to go, you should definitely make the effort. They have over 5,000 pieces in their permanent collection that they rotate through the exhibition spaces. Absolutely astounding.

After the museum closed, we headed back to Laduree to buy more macaroons! We have eaten all our other ones already and needed more before we left!

For dinner, we wanted to have a nice, French dinner since it was our final night in Europe! Sadly, everywhere we looked up was completely booked... We got discouraged and decided to head to our place and just eat somewhere around there. We found a small restaurant that looked promising and took a table. The interior was painted red and white and had circus photos pinned up all over the wall. There was one lady working in the main area and one cook. It was very small and local. In the states, this kind of place would usually serve relatively greasy burgers and fries. When we got the menu, everything on it was what you would find in a fine dining restaurant. We were very surprised but it sounded delicious! We ordered a bottle of wine, a shrimp mango salad appetizer, duck, steak and creme brûlée. It was so tasty! Hooray for a wonderful last dinner! Half way through our main course, the owner came in. He was a very old man who walked with a cane and wore a colorful suit jacket. He clearly dressed in colorful suit jackets every day. He was that kind of man. After he came in, he served himself a glass of white wine and started taking control of the music. Every song he chose, came with a round of singing and dancing from him. It was wonderful! He seemed happy. All of the circus photos on the wall had him in them. He had met a LOT of famous people in his lifetime.

Night,

Lilly

Day 41 - Our Final Full Day In Europe

Lilly Brown

lilly.hannele.brown@gmail.com

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Day 41 - Our Final Full Day In Europe