After walking around the area and finding a giant statue of a Lion for le defense we found the entrance to the old limestone quarries. This is where all of the limestone for the buildings was mined. After seeing the Cities of the Underground of the History Channel I knew what to expect, visually. Something like 30 million skeletons are down there in the old tunnels from graves, dug up in the 18th and 19th century because the city was running out of room. They decided to take the space of the cemetaries and move the bodies to an underground resting place.
On the way there we passed a cemetery, and decided to go in for a peak. They are much different here than the US. For one thing they is no grass and a simple headstone. There are large slabs of stone over the burrial and huge elaborate headstone sculptures. Some even have little 'houses' over them. Maybe the are some kind of small, individual mausoleum, I'm not sure. We found a sign that told of several famous people and intellectals burried there. We had talked in class earlier that day about some of the people burried here, oddly enough. So we figured we would try and find them. One elusive one was Col. Alfred Dryfus. But we wanted to get to the Catacombs before it gets crowed in the afternoon, so we'd have to come back.
Getting in free with our museum pass, which I'm starting to really like, then on down through some displays and down down down a small spiral staircase. Something like 83 steps. Walking through several yards of limestone tunnels, which were cool by themselves, we came to an open room and a door. It read above it "Arrêt; c'est ici l'empire de la mort". Walking through the dark tunnel to see large stacks of bones to the left and right was eerie. The large bones were all stacked up in the front with the ends on the outside forming almost artwork, with skulls making patterns in them. Patterns were from just horizontal lines down the walls to crosses or hearts. A few places they made the skull and cross bones like on a pirate flag. I saw that on the top behind the front is where all the rest of the bones were: ribs, vertebrae, etc. There was a temple in there too, where they said a prayer over them when it was finished. All along the walls were concreted plaques with inscriptions, ranging from quotes about death, sayings, or what was written on headstones of the unearthed. My camera did a pretty good job adjusting to the light, since I couldn't use a flash. There was even a small water well there, that the miners used to get a drink. I think the creepy part isn't the huge colleciton of bones, but the thought of having to dig up the graves, transporting them down there, and arranging them into art. That night I talked to Madam de Richemont about what I did that day. She almost got embarrassed and said "Paris has some weird habits." Walking out we found some large rooms in the rock quarry, which were pretty. Coming back up the 80-some steps, the guards checked our bags to make sure we didn't have any bones.
Heading back to the cemetary from before, we were determaned to find Dryfus's grave. Consulting the map sign a few times and walking around we finally found it. Many people still visit his grave after a couple hundred years to pay their respects. There are several small rocks and pieces of glass atop his grave.
With so much dead things that day, we decided on another: Les Invalides church and Napolean's Tomb. The tiny little guy is in 5 caskets: oak, ebony, two lead, then mahogany, and tinplate. He wasn't originally put here, but transported after 19 years of being buried in 1840. He went to school right by where I live in l'ecole militarie. The total tomb is 15 feet high. It's huge. When you walk in you see the beautiful gold and then the black marble alter. Walking further in you can see a big open circle to the basement crypt. Looking down is the massive tomb. Surrounding him under the giant dome of tons of gold, are his brothers, son, and geneals. His son, Napoelan II is entombed right to the south in the basement crypt. He was placed on the thrown of Rome, in diapers, dying in his 20s. Half of the military museum is closed right now, so they have on display a few of the most important things. Nampoean's little tunic and huge hat being one article along with swords and guns. We toured (quickly in 1/2 hour because it was closing) the WWI & WWII museum. Most of the stuff in there was only maps, pictures, and fake models of equipment. Nonetheless, it was still interesting. Going through the WWII was more interesting. They had actual items. Nazi paraphanallia, an armband and banner, and a jewish star of david armband. It makes the history books real. There is some about Charles de Gaulle and how he lead the underground army against the Nazis, while the actual leader of france colaborated. Then there is some US stuff too, and a little on the Japan part of the war, including replicas of the bombs. I got a picture of teh "little boy" but the other was huge and inside the stars, so I couldn't get a good picture.
Walking out into the courtyard of the museum on the way out was cool. All cobblestone. Looking up I saw a statue of Napolean looking over it all, lined with several canons.
With the weather not looking pleasant, we decided to find some dinner. Walking around trying to find a good cafe, it started to DOWNPOUR. fortunately we had umbrellas. We finally just decided we would eat at the next place just to get out of the rain. We found le Champ de Mars. Neither Bridget or I were very hungry so we ordered some types of salads. It sounded good from the menu...but.. We got the food and were set back. My salad of ham, goat cheese, and tomatoes, well...wasn't at all what I would ever imagine. You have to see the picture. Huge cuts of ham over the top of lettuce with bad dressing and tomatoes. With pieces of french bread with melted goat cheese. The whole time we smelled something bad. Nearly halfway through I picked up some of the bread with the cheese, I found the smell..ick. The cheese tasted good, but smelled racid. Deciding we'd never go back here again (not that we need to ever go back to the same place there are so many cafes) we got the bill, and had to correct it because they put the people beside us on our bill too...we didn't eat 76 euro worth of food, ha!
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| Day of the Dead... - Day 3 |
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