Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Not much of a celebration here in Paris, but it’s a good thing I wore green today, because Macfarlane went around pinching everyone who wasn’t!
We met down in the lobby today at 9:00am. I was running a bit late, so I only snagged a pain au chocolat on the way out. The problem with not rooming with Allyson is that it is really hard to keep track of her! Everyone was just heading out the door when I arrived, so I didn’t see her in the crowd. We hurried to the metro, cramming ourselves on the last second. We had to transfer lines, so when we got off, I noticed that Allyson wasn’t with the group. I felt so bad! I didn’t know where she was or why she wasn’t with the group. Turns out she missed the group by minutes. Luckily Sister Howe was waiting in the lobby for stragglers, so she was able to meet us at Notre Dame Cathedral shortly after we arrived. Notre Dame is beautiful! The rose windows are fantastic! Such beautiful glass. We went outside the cathedral to climb up the bell towers. I really love our museum passes, because they get us into everything for “free”! The climb up the tower was ridiculous! Something like 280 stairs going up in a tight spiral staircase. The steps were very narrow, and very worn down, because they had been used for so long. It was definitely worth it going to the top though. The view was spectacular. There were also some awesome gargoyles around the perimeter of the tower. Besides a rigorous thigh and butt work out going upstairs, going downstairs made us very dizzy. Had to pause at the bottom and regain our senses!
We certainly make attractive gargoyles.
From Notre Dame, we got paninis for lunch. I got a tuna, mozzarella, tomato, and basil panini, and it was amazing. The bread was so good. It hit the spot! We then went to Sainte Chapelle. I had no idea what to expect. Well, it is actually a rather “small” chapel, but the detail and color inside of it is amazing. When you climb up to the second level, you enter into a room with the most breathtaking stained glass windows. Sainte Chapelle is actually an architectural phenomena/genius. Because the walls lining the chapel are pretty much all stained glass, other support is needed to make sure the walls don’t fall down. Pretty crazy. It was so beautiful.
We were only in Sainte Chapelle for a little bit, and on our way out we ran into Calvin, Cameron, Briton, Katie, and Caitlin, who were all headed to Musee Cluney to fulfill an assignment for our Civ class. We had to go into the museum and find these tapestries of a woman and a unicorn. Apparently they are some great work, and feature the 5 senses, and then some. Wasn’t impressed, and shortly left.
Allyson and I parted ways with that group and headed on our own to the Catacombs. We had a surprisingly easy time finding our way there. We entered the Catacombs by climbing down a spiral staircase that went far below the city. The Catacombs were amazing! First, Allyson and I were the only ones in there, so we went walking through all of these dark, dank tunnels that went on forever. We kept on trying to scare each other, because it was very spooky, especially being there completely alone. We had a lot of fun just being our crazy, goofy selves. We finally reached the cemetery portion of the Catacombs. There were thousands upon thousands of bones; all piled and organized in different patterns. It was very morbid, but very, very cool! It was fantastic! I was so glad that we went – I had been dying to go! We had a lot of fun! It was fascinating.
The Catacombs are a famous underground ossuary in Paris. The ossuary fills caverns and tunnels that are the remains of Paris’ stone mines. As Paris population rose during the 18th century, its cemeteries began to become too full. A solution to aid the overflowing cemeteries was to bury the dead in the old mines. Bones were removed from cemeteries by night, and were taken underground by a procession of priests, who chanted the burial service along the way, as they led a parade of black-covered bone-laden horse-drawn wagons. The bones were then stacked and arranged into ornate patterns.
As we were leaving, there was a man seated at the door who was responsible for checking bags. After he looked in my bag I asked him what he was looking for. He told me that he had to look for bones being taken from the Catacombs. I was shocked that someone would want to take a skull home with them, and was extremely surprised to see a smile pile of tibias and skulls next to the man, that he said he had collected from people that day. Pretty crazy!
The Catacombs do crazy things to you...
We rose out of the Catacombs, to find that we were in a completely different area than we started out in. We found a metro, and headed back towards the Eiffel Tower. We had to change trains at the same station where we got off to go to the Catacombs, so we ran back up to the entrance to grab a map for me. There was a line to get into the Catacombs, so we lucked out because we got to go in alone!
We headed to the Eiffel Tower, because we wanted to be on it before, during, and after sunset. Well, we though the line would take a lot longer because it was so long, but we were surprised by how fast it seemed to go by. We spent an entire four hours on the Eiffel Tower. We paid to go to the very top, because Allyson and I go all the way – that’s just the kind of girls we are! We spent time on the second and third levels and took tons of pictures. The view was spectacular! I loved it! Unfortunately, we didn’t get a very good sunset, because it was very hazy. After the sun had set, we noticed tons of smoke rising across the city. Some big building was on fire in the city. It was pretty scary, because we could see the flames all the way from the Tower. They seemed to get the fire out though within an hour or so. The Eiffel Tower was great though! I could never imagine climbing up all of the stairs to get to the top. I’m very glad that we bought elevator tickets. Loved being on the Eiffel Tower. Totally worth it! Every night on the hour the tower lights up and sparkles, with hundreds of lights glittering. So beautiful. We had a great time!
I may have snapped/lost it... it was a vey long & exhausting day...
Now I am at my hotel, and I am completely exhausted. My feet are beyond just bloody stumps. They are now bloody thigh nubs, I have no more knees. We did so much walking and climbing today, we are justly sore. Sore is an understatement. I was in so much pain today, it was kind of pathetic. Such a great day though! Wrapped up a fabulous day with a warm bath and a shower. I fell asleep in the bathtub for a little bit, but it felt so good to soak my poor feet. Now I am falling asleep while writing… I am just so exhausted from such an adventurous day!
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