Paris Day 1: Saturday, June 23, 2007

The Catacombs & The Eiffel Tower at night

We left Saturday morning and took a bus with the group from Tours to Paris. We arrived around noon and had the rest of the afternoon to explore Paris.

This picture was taken in our hotel room in Paris in the 15^th arrondissement. The huge window opened to the street below.

This is Jacob’s first kebab:

Kebabs are super popular in France, and are about on the popularity-level of a fast food burger & fries in America. It’s shaven meat (like what’s on a gyro), and it comes with lettuce & tomato and your choice of sauce. I always get sauce blanche (white sauce, similar to béarnaise), and I ask for ketchup with my fries. I learned this ordering trick the hard way – the first few times I ordered a kebab with sauce blanche, my fries came with sauce blanche for dipping, and when I ordered my kebab with mayo, I got a big pile of mayo next to my fries for dipping. I eventually learned to order “Kebab avec sauce blanche et ketchup pour les frites.” (Kebab with white sauce and ketchup for the fries.) I know this is a red-flag that I’m not French, and I like mayonnaise just as much (or maybe more than) the next guy, but I just can’t dip my fries in mayonnaise.



After lunch, we headed to the Catacombs, since this was what Jacob was looking forward to the most. I tried to go last time I was in Paris, but it was closed, so it was something that I really wanted to see too.







Info about the catacombs from Wikipedia:

The Catacombs of Paris is a famous burial place in Paris, France. It is a network of subterranean tunnels and rooms located in what were Roman-era limestone quarries. The quarries were converted into a mass tomb near the end of the 18^th century.

The use of the depleted quarries for the storage of bones was established in 1786 by the order of Monsieur Thiroux de Crosne, Lt. General of Police, and by Monsieur Guillaumot, Inspector General of Quarries. At the time, the Les Halles district in the middle of the city was suffering from disease, due to contamination caused by improper burials and mass graves in churchyard cemeteries, especially the large Saints Innocents Cemetery. It was decided to discreetly remove the bones and place them in the abandoned quarries.

The catacomb walls are covered in graffiti dating from the 18th century onwards. Victor Hugo used his knowledge about the tunnel system in his novel Les Misérables. In 1871 communards killed a group of monarchists in one chamber. During World War II, Parisian members of the French Resistance used the tunnel system. Also during this period, German soldiers established an underground bunker in the catacombs below Lycee Montaigne, a high school in the 6th arrondissement.

The visit to the catacombs is definitely not for the chlosterphobic. After walking down a tiny, windy staircase for what seemed like an eternity, we ended up in this low-ceilinged tunnel.





















After walking through the windy tunnel for quite a while, you walk through this doorway, and all the walls are lined with bones from this point on. They are stacked very neatly, and there are even designs made with the bones, like a cross made out of skulls in the middle of stack of bones. Very creepy.





























There were signs to signify from which cemetery the bones came.










After climbing the steps back to street level from the catacombs, we took the metro to La Comédie-Française (Paris theater founded in 1680) to see about getting tickets to a play.

We bought a carnet (a book of 10 tickets) and used the metro to get around Paris -- here's a picture Jacob took of me approaching one of the metro entrances.





Inside La Comédie-Française, I hesitantly approached the ticket window to ask about tickets to a Molière play (with some nudging from Jacob), since signs were posted everywhere showing the play as sold out. We lucked out and got two tickets! Speaking French to the French as a foreigner really has its advantages!


While were we were standing outside looking at the beautiful old building, one of the French doors opened, and out came these actors to take a smoke break! I think the afternoon play was going on at this time.

These pictures were taken behind La Comédie-Française where there is this really strange “art” exhibit that contrasts the classical and the modern.

Next, we walked over to the Jardin des Tuileries (Tuileries Garden). This popular garden is right by the Louvre.

Jacob loved how people actually use the public park space in France. (Could be because it’s not as miserably hot as it is here!)

Here I am in windy Paris with the Eiffel Tower behind me, facing Jacob (who is taking my picture) with the Louvre behind him.

It doesn't get much better than this...

Next, we walked over to the Eiffel Tower because we just couldn't wait to see it. (We actually visited it on another day; I'll post those pictures later!)



This is my favorite picture that we (Jacob, actually!) took of the Eiffel Tower . It almost always appears black in pictures, but it's really a brownish color.









Looking up from underneath the Eiffel Tower.








The next picture is proof of our strange encounter at the Eiffel Tower. This girl came up to us and said, “Um, this is kind of weird, but is your name Jacob?” Jacob looked at her and said, “Yeah.” She said, “My name is Laura, and I work at JCS Summer Camp, and I thought I recognized you! I love your son Christian!” Then she turned to me and said, “Oh ! And you’re Christian’s mom who’s been studying in France – he talks about you all the time!”













ISN’T THAT STRANGE!?!

When I dropped Christian off at summer camp for the first time on the Monday after we were back in town, Laura was there!



We had dinner every night at a restaurant with the group; this was so convenient since we had breakfast included in our room cost at the hotel in the morning, then a nice dinner every night. We ate dinner at 7pm, and since it doesn’t get dark until about 10:30pm, we had several hours after dinner each night to do more things.

After dinner this first night, we headed to the Eiffel Tower so that we could see it lit up at night.

We had to wait a while for it to get dark...


























Once it finally got dark, it was so beautiful!














For 10 minutes at the top of the hour at 10 p.m. and 11 p.m, there are twinkling lights that twinkle and move around on the tower.

Hope you're having a fantastic day! Keep checking back for more pictures of Paris!