Tres Macabre

What else could be a better activity to do on a sunny Friday afternoon in Paris than to decend into the cavernous underground and spend some time amongst 6 million dead bodies?

Below the metro, deep underground in disused quarries beneath the city of Paris, lie the Catacombs, damp and dark tunnels bounded by the bones of the city's 18th century residents.

The first of the bones were placed here in 1786 when decomposing bodies started seeping into the cellars of the market at Les Halles drawing swarms of rats and causing disease. A public outcry resulted in the bones being moved, carefully and with respect, by black robed priests and their helpers, into the Catacombs and stacked neatly by bone type - packs of tibias and piles of spinal disks, often with a tongue-in-cheek artful arrangments (skulls and their crossbones, skulls arranged in a heartshape, and more in a cross...)...

The walk takes about 45 minutes and is eerie and macabre...but for the odd soft light from lamps along the way it is dark and damp with drips that fall from the rocky ceiling and run down your back causing the odd unexpected shiver. Some of the tunnels are narrow and, with the low ceilings, you certainly wouldn't want to be clostrophobic or, as the sign warned at the front door, be of a 'nervous disposition'. I found the whole experience interesting and a little surreal...I was glad to have done it but perhaps wouldn't be rushing back in a hurry - especially not at halloween!

Thankfully, I was not alone. I was joined for this particular outing by Bethany, a New Yorker from my French class with whom I have spent some time over the past couple of days, watching french movies (in french with french subtitles...!) and enjoying several glasses of vin rouge at a couple of little bars nearby. 

One week has already flown past and I am wishing that time would slow down. I am comfortable in my surroundings and feel like I know my neighbourhood (though there will be always be a little side street or another hidden little bar to discover...). I feel my french improving as understand more and more and it is less of a struggle to make myself understood.

I am looking forward to Heidi arriving this afternoon so I can indroduce her to my life here and maybe check out the Parisian night life in style.

Till next time...