Day 22 (21)

Our first day in Paris found us waiting in line for the catacombs. We got in line relatively early and only had to wait two hours. Thank goodness for an ipod loaded with 10 Things I Hate About You. It was perfect timing, just as we finished the movie we arrived at the head of the line. Although I have to say two people sharing headphones and watching a movie on a tiny ipod screen in bright sunlight is not the easiest thing to do.


The catacombs are an basically mining tunnels which were mined back when (you all know how to Google if you want actual facts) and now they are full of bones. That's right, my Halloween dream come true. In the 17th century the cemeteries in Paris were overcrowded and so they took the bones/remains of the buried and transferred them to these old mine tunnels below the city. They contain the remains of about 6 million people. Okay, I looked at wikipedia. The coolest part is that originally the bodies/bones were just dumped in there but at some point someone went in and rearranged them into patterns. So they're piled up all neat. It was a really cool experience. I'll spare you having to look at any pictures of it. ;)

After the catacombs we started at the arc de Triomphe and then walked up the Champs Elysees and then over to the Louvre. We basically did a walking tour of Paris for the evening activity. I took a bunch of pictures of the Eiffel Tower from far away. We tried twice to get people to take our picture with the tower in the background but it turns out that people (in Paris? Maybe everywhere?) don't seem to comprehend that you want the tourist sight in the background of the picture that you're taking. It was pretty funny to get the camera back and not have the tower in the picture at all. Yay camera timer!

Thus ends day one in Paris and Day 22 of the 30 for 30 challenge.