No kidding, either. We pretty much covered central Paris in one day. And our timing was actually pretty good! We started with a lovely walk through the bowels of the city: the catacombs. We got in line an hour before it opened which ended up being a really good idea because fifteen minutes later the line was four times as long and still growing! The catacombs are much deeper under Paris than the metro is, and they are actually quite extensive. They only let you walk through a small part. The first half of our tour was through a bunch of old passageways made of stone. There were exhibits here and there that talked about what the land was like billions of years ago. Then we entered the ossuary. I don't know the specifics, but I do know that they needed a place to put all of the bones when people were dying of the plague, so they decided to pile them up in the old catacombs. The ossuary is a giant mass grave where bones are piled on top of each other. As my friend put it, the whole time you're walking through thinking "this is really cool! ...I'm totally creeped out... I like this! ...No, I don't like this..." It was creepy and fascinating at the same time. I couldn't even guess at how many bones were down there. Millions of skeletons at least. It was crazy.
We got out of the catacombs on schedule and decided to take a look at Paris from the sky: our next stop was Notre Dame. Again we waited for about an hour, but then we got into the North Tower and climbed a bajillion steps up to the top. It was really cool. The gargoyles are awesome and the view is fantastic! We also got to see the biggest bell in the cathedral: it's called Emmanuel. Apparently, back in the day, there were twenty-some bells in Notre Dame. Now, howver, there are only eleven. We have French revolutionaries to thank for that. They took ALL of the bells down. The eleven we have today are all replacements. We heared them chiming on the hour a couple of times.
We went inside after coming back down, and it is definitely beautiful. They let you take pictures as long as your flash is off, but they ask you not to talk so that you don't disturb the worshipers while you're there. The stained glass is beautiful and so is the organ. I loved it. And I have to say, Disney did a fabulous job portraying it in their Hunchback movie.
We had expected a longer wait for Notre Dame, so we were delighted to have enough time to visit the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Eiffel Tower, all in quick succession. We didn't go inside the Louvre, but we took pictures outside of it. It was fun. :) I think this is the first day that my camera has actually run out of batteries--we did a lot and took a lot more pictures than usual. I also ate two crepes today, and they were both incredibly delicious.
And now we're turning in. It's not quite seven, but our feet are exhausted and we have an even bigger day tomorrow: Disneyland Paris!
I'll check in with you all after that. :)
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