We went to the Eiffel Tower to check it out. It goes without saying that it is a very unique and impressive structure. We walked around the base of the tower and took a few pictures.

One picture that I found interesting was standing on the ground right in the middle of the tower looking up.

There was a fair amount of people at the Eiffel tower and there was a line up for the elevators to go up the tower. Shelley and I noticed one base of the tower which had very few people in the line up, so we went and checked it out. This line up was for taking the stairs and walking up to the second level of the tower.

We decided why not take the stairs, so we bought our tickets and started the climb up the Eiffel tower stairs.

The stairs are numbered and as you go up you get a sense of how many stairs you have climbed. There are a total of 700 stairs to get to the second level.

The higher you go up the stairs the more challenging it becomes. The stairs are fenced in to ensure no one “falls” off. The higher you go up the smaller  the people on the ground appear. When you look sideways on the stairs you can see the buildings becoming smaller.

I am not afraid of heights and I was comfortable with the climb. Shelley was having some difficulty with the stairs because of the open concept and views of the ground and sky. At around the 400 stair mark Shelley decided that was enough for her and headed back down to the ground. After making sure she was ok and with me going ahead I carried on and climbed the rest of the stairs to the second level. You could get great views of Paris from there. Below is a view of the Champ de Mars park.

I walked around the second level and admired the views before heading back down the stairs.

Back on the ground we decided we would walk back to the hotel through the Park of Champ de Mars.

We had a full day and enjoyed the Eiffel tower but also we enjoyed the walk back through the park.

“au revoir et bonne journée”

When we were in Paris we went to the catacombs which are located in a series of underground tunnels. The entrance to the catacombs is an unassuming 1 storey building, once inside there is a spiral staircase that leads approximately 19 meters below ground to the catacombs.  Once you reach the bottom there is an area approximately 5 square meters with displays on the history of the catacombs and geographical features of the rock. There is also a warning sign about the ossuary.

You are able to walk the  2 Kms of the catacombs at your own pace. The walk is not an easy stroll because the ground is not always level, lighting was dime and there are spots where water may drip through from the ceiling of the tunnel.

Not all of the areas of the catacombs are used as an ossuary. Some areas of the catacombs are basically narrow underground halls which lead to different parts of the catacombs.

The history of the catacombs is truly extraordinary, There are ancient mines  under Paris. They had mined a product called “Lutetian Limestone” which was used as a building material and for gypsum for use in the “plaster of paris”. The mines were eventually abandoned and in 1774 there were several cave-ins from the abandoned mines in the city of Paris. This caused officials to create a special division of architects responsible for the inspection, maintenance, and repair of the mines under buildings within and around Paris. Below is one of the markings from former inspections done in the 18th century.

The city of Paris was also facing another challenge with the growth of the population in Paris. The growing population was creating a saturation of existing cemeteries and concerns over health risks.

The ossuary was created when city officials tackled the two simultaneous problems; the cave-ins that started in 1774 and the overflowing cemeteries.  The city reclaimed the cemeteries and beginning in 1774 to 1786 there was nightly processions of remains from the Paris cemeteries to the shored up mines turned into an ossuary. More remains were added in later years to the ossuary. In total there are approximately 6 million human remains in the ossuary.

The ossuary provided the solution for the city. I can’t imagine how many and complex political issues they would have been involved in during this process. The challenge that city staff would have had dealing with these problems must have been incredible.

The feelings we had while walking through the catacombs was mixed. When we started the walk in the catacombs we had a feeling of awe and amazement at the tunnels, but as we moved deeper into the catacombs our feelings began to change.

As we walked further into the depths of the catacombs everyone taking the tour was quiet. There was very little talking among the group and it felt more like you entered into a funeral home. Our feelings changed to more of an eerie sense of awe as we thought about the long history of the place.  These catacombs were used by the French resistance during the Second World War, they hid in them and used the tunnels to go to different parts of the city.

At the entrance to the ossuary there is an engraving which read “Arrête! C’est ici l’empire de la Mort” it translates to “Stop! This is the Empire of the Dead”.

Once we arrived at the ossuary section of the catacombs our feelings changed again. Inside the actual ossuary we had an  eerie and sadness that came over us. It was just hard to imagine all of the human remains in the ossuary.  Approximately 6 million human remains were stored here and some of the skulls and bones were used as a decorative display.

Sections of the ossuary had markings to indicate which cemeteries or time periods the remains were from.

Some of the sections had more of an ornate design than others.

As we walked further into the depths of the ossuary we began to be dismayed by the displays of human bones. These human remains had no marker and would never be known again as to who they were and their identities are lost forever.

Along the ossuary there were several plaques in Latin. The plaque below was displayed as we walked through the ossuary. It translates roughly as the following.

Translation –“certain death awaits you ; These days certain but death . Remember to always watch , the last light of the hidden”

As we reached the end of the ossuary section there was a plaque that was displayed in latin and it translates roughly as follows: 

has no fear of death of those who despise the life of the soil

There were a lot of different human remains displayed as we walked through the ossuary section. I have only posted a few images of the human remains out of respect for the ossuary. It was very humbling and something we will never forget.

“au revoir et bonne journée”

This post is for our friends who love chocolate. (you know who you are!)

We were walking the Paris streets enjoying the day and stopped into a chocolate store which makes all their own chocolate. The store looked more like an art studio than a chocolate store. We walked by the store at first and then noticed it was chocolates so of course we headed inside to check it out.

The store front is fairly small and it was full of chocolate displays. Some of the displays were spectacular and quite creative. There were some huge chocolate eggs that were almost 3 feet high.

The huge chocolate eggs were all for sale, but a tad expensive for us. One of the big eggs cost 220 euros. We stayed far away from those eggs in case we knocked one over.

On a smaller scale there were more art decor chocolates. Here are a few of the displays.

 

We found it very interesting and creative. The place was busy and there were some people buying some of those displays. We decided the displays would be too hard to pack and left without buying anything.

“au revoir et bonne journée”

On Wednesday it was raining and cold in Paris so we decided to make it a museum day. We headed out early and took a taxi to the Louvre museum. The museum is a massive building and is very impressive even from the outside. Below is the entrance to the yard area of the Louvre.

We got to the entrance area early just after opening and there was only a small line up. We decided that we would make this a full day because really the museum is so big you need at least one full day to see most of it.

The inside of the Louvre has spectacular architectural features. We entered the museum through the glass Pyramid entrance.  Inside the Louvre there is an inverted glass pyramid on the main floor.

The museum is separated into three main wings.  They are the Sully, Richelieu and Denon wings, each one is dedicated to a selected area of art and history. We started with the Denon wing, which has the famous Mona Lisa painting and assorted collections of amazing marble and stone statues some from the Roman and Etruscan times.

In the main stairway leading to the second floor in the Demon wing there is a statue called the Winged Victory of Samothrace. This is a Greek marble statue and it is prominently displayed on the landing of the staircase.

The marble statues were very impressive with some very famous ones.  Below are only a few of the statues we saw.

Zeus in ancient greek mythology was the god who ruled as king of the gods of Mount Olympus.

The architecture and decor of the Louvre is massive and very impressive.

There was a lot of impressive artwork besides the Mona Lisa. I have a few examples below.

The David and Goliath oil painting is actually painted on two different canvases and mounted against each other. The paintings are slightly different showing a lapse of time in the battle between David and Goliath.

We toured a major portion of the museum during our day but did not see it all. The museum is so big it requires more than a day to see it all. We had a pedometer with us for the day and we walked over 18 kms that day. It was an excellent but very tiring day.

“au revoir et bonne journée”