Catacombes

This morning I took it easy by sleeping in and spending the morning working on my blog.
Manuel and I planned to meet up this afternoon to tackle the Catacombes which promise to be
spooky, but interesting. A whopping 1.6km long series of tunnels underneath the S central
area of Paris has become the home and resting place for millions of human bones. Originally
formed though mines and quarrys to procure the much desired bedrock of stone for building, the
tunnels also played a very important role in the various wars as part of the resistance
movements. The displays in the Catacombes are a combination of lack of in ground graveyard
space, thousands of deaths due to multiple wars throughout the 17-18th centuries, a desire to
honor those who died and a great tourist exposition. First you must descend an untold number
of stairs to get down to the catacomb level. With a few boards of interesting history you
begin walking underground through narrow tunnels for quite a long time before finally coming
to the section where the bones are kept. Once you reach it there's nothing in the rooms but
bones. They are stacked about 4-4.5 feet high with varying patterns of leg/arm bones and
skulls. Every so often there are poetic quotes about death and plaques stating which war or
cemetery the bones came from and when they were moved to the Catacombes. You happen upon the
bones as quickly as you leave them. In one room and not the next.

Once back up top we walked over to Rue Moufftard again and picked up some tasty morsels for an
outdoor dinner in the Jardin du Luxembourg. We picked out 5 different French cheeses (strong
bleu/chevre/munster/2 I cant remember), herbed ham, saucisson (french salami), mousse de
canard (duck mousse), another sausage I don't know the name of, poppy seed and plain baguettes
and a half bottle of Cote du Rhone red wine. It was all so delicious!! The cheeses were so
varied from mild and fruity to pungent. The bread was fresh and the meats full of flavor.
This was yet another very French way to spend time in a park.

We took the metro to the Latin Quarter to scout out a jazz club. The area is not so much
latin as it is Greek. For a while I thought I was back in Athens with restaurants offering
moussaka and gyros. We were about an hour early for the jazz show, so we stopped into one of
the bars for drinks while we waited. This place was pricey! Tea for E4!! Usually it's
around 2 or 3 tops and that's for an entire tea pot of about 18oz. This was only about 12oz.
The alcoholic drinks were even more expensive: E7 for a pint. The only interesting part
about this place was they had the futbol game on of Lyon vs. a German team. An important game
for France to see if they could make it into the European World Cup. The club was right
across the street and we headed in around 10pm. The music didn't start until 10:30pm, so we
sat around for a bit and watched some more of the futbol game. A group of 3 teenagers were
interviewing the lead band member with some fancy video equipment. It seemed like a couple
times a day I would run into a group of teenagers filming something right where I was trying
to see something or walk.

The jazz club had an underground, metro/subway, old church design to it. It reminded me of
the place I would go swing dancing in grad school at the Wabasha Street Caves--literally a
series of subway like rooms built into the side of a rocky mountain/hill on the S St. Paul
side of the river. Downstairs there was what appeared to be a dance floor and some people
already dancing as the band did some skat warm ups. I wasn't expecting to dance and Manuel
informed me his dancing was like an epileptic crab. I will be cracking up over that for a
long time! The band was quite good. Most of the musicians were from the Provence area. We
heard Take the A Train, What A Wonderful World, and one other song I recognized, but couldn't
remember the name of. Before long it was about 11:45pm when I wondered what time the metro
stopped running. Manuel thought it was around 12:45am which is when we decided that with 1/2
hour rides for each of us, we'd hear one more song and head home. Shame we had to leave early
with such good music and dancing. At the metro we realized this would probably be the last
time to hang out since tomorrow was my last day and he had work. It was great having my own
personal tour guide for Paris. I think I got some of the inside scoop of what it's like to
live there and a taste of some classically French food and customs.