Paris, Day 4

May 29, 2012 ... Last Day in Paris

Our final day in Paris would be shorter than our other days as we had our bus to catch to go back to Prague later in the afternoon.  Ann's son, Andrew, was leaving earlier as well due to his flight.  He did join us as we went over to the catacombs because his bus to take him to the airport was right by it.

Something that we did see was heavily armed military walking around various places.  We saw some of them by the catacombs that day (see below).  It was extremely hot out and we waited about two hours to get inside, the wait was well worth it.

The Catacombs of Paris.

A little history:  Opened in the late 18th century and houses the bones of about six million people.  Roughly about the same amount of people killed by the Nazis in World War II.  After seeing them for myself and comparing the number to those killed in WWII, it is a bit overwhelming.  It is one thing to talk about six million people being killed by the Nazis, it is a completely another thing to see what that really is.

There is a network of tunnels underneath Paris but the catacombs do not consist of that entire network even though most people just refer to that tunnel system as the catacombs.  The catacombs were created due primarily to the lack of space left to bury the newly dead in and around Paris.  Bones were exhumed and relocated into the catacombs.

They had sculptured carved into the stone that we saw before we even saw any bones.

It is fascinating how they carefully arranged each and every one of these bones.

Some are even in a decorative type design.

I highly recommend anyone going to Paris to make it a point to go through the catacombs.

After we were done there, we hurried back to our hostel and grabbed our bags that we had left in the lobby that morning.  As you can see below, my bag was bigger than I am and I really felt bad as we got onto the metro and I had to cram it in there with me.  We really had to squish ourselves onto two separate trains to get to our stop for our bus.

We did make it to our bus and had enough time to stop and eat a quick sandwich at a small cafe.  Ann ran across the street and grabbed some French pastries too.  We had a nice surprise though when we got on the bus.  Many of the people I had been on the bus with on the way to Paris were riding back with us, plus, Courtney and Jed happened to get on our bus too!

A long 16 hour bus ride and a three hour train ride, we were finally back in Olomouc.   Next time I go to Paris, I would love to spend at least a week and a half there.  I know that even with that amount of time, I still would not get to see everything I wanted to.  Two major things I wanted to go to are Versailles and Monet's garden.  I think both are a whole day each.  Ann also had the opportunity to go on a Normandy tour, that is on my list to do as well next time I am there.

Paris, you were fun and you wore holes into my shoes but I will see you again some day!