MAURICE, THE BAGUETTES, HURRY UP!

Yesterday I had off from work, so Carrie and I hit the streets. Carrie had the [brilliant!] idea to check out the Catacombs, especially since it's almost Halloween. It's one of those [numerous] things I've always meant to do but haven't.

SO. AWESOME. After all, this is the friend with whom I've watched a million horror movies. We love this stuff.

I think it's about 2km (slightly more than a mile) of tunnels under the city. Long story short, they had to move several cemeteries as the city expanded, and they had religious processions in which they brought all of the displaced bones to former quarry tunnels especially converted into an Ossuary. I didn't even know that was a word in English.

This was as you start out (after a spiral staircase descent that makes you feel like you're [literally] going straight to Hell).

"Arrête! C'est ici l'empire de la mort" [Stop! Here lies the empire of death] Entrance into the Ossuary.

Oh.SNAP. I see dead people. A.whole.LOT.of.them.

Talk about morbid, if you can't tell, this is a bunch of skulls in the form of a heart, set against a background of more bones. Tim Burton, you have been outdone.

"Croyez que chaque jour est pour vous le dernier."

[Believe that each day is your last. -Horace]

Afterwards we wandered over to Cité Universitaire to see a man about a visa. Fail; more later when I feel like going back. Then we took the train to Abbesses, grabbed chocolate-banana crêpes (YES), and went to see the Lady GaGa exhibit in some small gallery.

Since we weren't far from Sacre Coeur, we went up to check it out. As you can see, we ended up having a beautiful day!

Then we proceeded to wander (because by my geographer skills, as long as you're going downhill from Montmartre you're probably going the right direction). We checked out the artists in the Place des Tertres, and meandered back down past Pigalle (KARAOKE BAR) and The Moulin Rouge.

As we neared the Grands Magasins (think Fifth Ave) we saw tons of CRS police (this means you can't be far from some sort of protest or strike). Sure enough, as we neared Bd Haussman we quickly realized we'd come upon a real beast of a parade. Highlight was a tie between Carrie joining in with their chants (and me yelling at her to stop it!) and the cart in the parade selling 2€ mojitos. I'd strike just to get the mojito ...

In our wanderings, we came across this store. Which made me laugh. Not sure why. 'Ice Feeling' just seems ridiculous as a store name.

The rest of our wandering was in the general direction of home: Opéra Garnier, La Madeleine, Concorde, The Tuileries, a flyby of the Louvre and then back home. We dined, in true style, on cheese, baguette, and wine. Normal. We may also have back to back watched Hercules and Beauty and the Beast. And sung along.

Maybe.