Paris, Days 4-5 {May 11-12}

 

Day 4

Attempt 2 at the catacombs went better – we got there about an hour before they opened, and it still took a while to get in, but the line wasn’t nearly as long as the day before. If you don’t know…for a while, the people were buried in mass graves, but it started to be a sanitation problem because they use wells for water. So, they dug up the mass graves and moved all the bones to the catacombs – mines that were long-abandoned stone quarries. It was pretty cool to walk through them – not as creepy as I expected, but still weird if you thought about it too much.

After the Catacombs, we ventured outside of the city for the afternoon – we took a train to Fontainebleau, a large castle about 45 minutes outside of Paris that the kings and Napoleon used as a vacation home. We liked it better than Versailles in a lot of ways – not nearly as crowded, beautiful grounds, and a neat interior.

on the left: the Library – probably my favorite room. I don’t know how well you can tell from the picture, but it was HUGE! They said 200 yards long. And on the right: Napoleon’s throne room.

After Fontainebleau, we took the train back to the city and went over to walk through Notre Dame. They were holding Mass while we were there, which was interesting. Notre Dame was celebrating 850 years while we were there – amazing that it is that old.

We went back to the Eiffel Tower because when we climbed it the night before, it was really late by the time we got done so we didn’t get a chance to hang out there very long. This was actually one of our favorite nights – we took a few pictures and just sat on the steps people-watching. There was a set of stairs people came down, a wide sidewalk, then one more stair, and we watched probably 20 people in half an hour trip on that last stair – they would come around the corner with their eyes on the Eiffel Tower and not realize there was one more step. It was actually pretty entertaining (don’t worry, nobody was seriously injured). 

Day 5

Our last day in Paris! We went to church in the morning, then climbed to the top of Notre Dame and went on a tour of the towers. The narrow winding staircase was a little much (I get dizzy/light-headed easily when I’m pregnant), but I survived, then we headed over to the Sainte Chapelle – I love those stained glass windows!

We spent the rest of the afternoon doing a museum marathon – Musee D’Orsay (my favorite!), Musee Rodin, Les Invalides (where Napoleon is buried) and Musee de L’Armee. I felt like we had been busy the previous 3 days, but there were still a lot of things we were trying to fit in on the last day. Fortunately, we made it everywhere we wanted to.

We found some dinner, then decided to do a Seine boat tour to see the main sights along the river at night. A great end to an amazing visit to Paris!!