Day 4: Tuesday June 7th

Today was a dreary day indeed. 

To start off we went to the Catacombs of Paris.  Basically these came into existence when an ancient graveyard was getting complaints from the neighbors about health issues and how it was unsanitary because it was so old and un-kept. So the city had to dig up ALL the graves and move them somewhere else. They came up with the solution of the catacombs. The catacombs are 120 steps below ground and it is a series of tunnels and hallways underneath Paris. Most of the hallways are filled with bones on either side of the walkway.  The builders took all the leg bones and stacked them up in columns and rows on top of each other and then occasionally would through in a layer of skulls.  Overall super creepy. And that's just what visitors can see. Apparently there are full corpses in shelves that you can see and you also wonder where all the arm bones are. The information said that millions of people are buried there.  In the early stages of the catacombs, family members of those buried there would come in and hold services and mass(es?) in honor of the dead, so inside you would occasionally find little alters and stools where they would hold those. In the catacombs it can get down to 14 degrees or below and you WILL have water dripping down from the ceiling onto your head and creating mud on the floor. Imagine the tunnels only being it by torch and you've got yourself the eery haunted experience of the catacombs. It's easy to get scared if you psych yourself out and even if you keep control of your mind, by the end you are sick to your stomach from seeing so many bones.  Did I mention they only let a certain amount in at one time? So it's basically you, by yourself, alone.  BOO!

The builders might have gotten slightly bored

Imagine the walls lined with this photo and thats the catacombs

Sitting on a mass stool. So creepy

Next we went to Sacré Cœur which is the highest point in Paris (beside the Eiffel Tower).  It's a great big church-ish thing on top of a hill so it makes it really high. Unfortunately for my parents and I, after getting off the metro at the base of Sacré Cœur and eating lunch, we started looking for the thing that takes us to the very top and it started POURING.  Like hard core raining. And we knew that it would be miserable to try and get to the top in the rain so we decided to wait it out by shopping first.  So we headed toward he outer streets (usually prices are better away from the main attraction) and found ourself in what we like to call the Fabric District.  This certain place was even worse than Purseville.It wasn't just one street of fabric, it was like a mini town! Every turn we made to try and get out was full of stores which were full of every type and color of fabric that you could imagine. They had it on the sidewalk, they had it inside, they had it on the ceiling, the even had it as a roof over the sidewalk! We couldn't even imagine why someone would need that much fabric?! But the funny thing is when it comes to the Fabric District and Purseville is that if we were looking for them, there was NO WAY we would have found them! Honestly the next place I'm expecting to find it a whole town dedicated to rubber duckies. GOLY GEEZ!

After we finally found our way back to the main streets we decided to go in EVERY souvenir shop before deciding that the rain wasn't going to stop and we would go eat dinner and then come back. So we hopped the metro and went home for a delicious pasta dinner. 

Next we decided to go out and souvenir shop again. But, somehow we ended up finding a store dedicated to maps (which we needed very badly) and a camping store (this is for you Sam, I hope you are reading). I mean what are the odds? The only stores we had seen up till then had been just plain souvenir shops…nothing that was dedicated to something weird like those.  After that we kept walking on these unknown streets and found ourselves in front of the Pantheon! Sadly it wasn't open, but we got some pictures and thought it very funny that we WOULD stumble upon something huge that we hadn't had time for but wanted to see.  It just goes to show how lost you can get in Paris but still end up exactly where you want. 

On our way around the Pantheon, my father spotted the most stereotypical French picture ever. It was a bald man with a barrette, sitting at a cafe, with his dog beside him. It truly was picture perfect.

Oh the French

And of course we had to be creepy and get closer

Finally we found the stores we were looking for. It was our last night in Paris and we were trying to find souvenirs and my mom really wanted a picture frame.  So the first few stores we found one she liked and got the price, but then as you went down the streets we would occasionally find one that was 2 Euros cheaper (most shops had identical merchandise). So of course this started the great bargain shopping for the night. I swear we went to EVERY souvenir shop in a mile radius. Sometimes we would even go into a shop and realize that we had already been to it. They started meshing together in our heads really easily. BUT, the kicker is…that we didn't even get a frame! All that for nothing! It became a running joke between us that my dad liked to go shopping with us girls because we would go in EVERY shop and do all the walking, BUT we wouldn't buy anything. So the only thing it cost him was time and he even gained a little exercise. :)

Finally we walked past the Notre Dame on our way home and I got the famous Hunchback pose for my mom. Hey! If you're there you might as well do all the cheesy shots! 

Hunchback of Notre Dame