After our long day yesterday we slept in and got a late start on our sightseeing. We took advantage of being close to the entrance of the catacombs. We walked the few blocks to the entrance but still had to wait in a line for an hour and a half to get into the catacombs.
line to get into the catacombs entrance to the catacombs
Once you get in, the tour takes you on a 1.2 mile walk through the catacombs. The catacombs were originally limestone quarries that tunneled all around the outside of the city. In 1786 to relieve congestion in the city and to improve sanitation they decided to dig up over six million dead bodies from the graveyards around the churches and move the bones to the limestone tunnels outside the city. It took several decades to complete the task.
heading into the tunnels coming out of the tunnels
permanent residents of the tunnels three residence with a visitor from above
The bones are stacked 5 feet high and some of the rooms go back over eighty feet. People are monitored going into the tunnel and checked on the way out.
objects taken from visitors at the exit of the tunnel post cards from a souvenir store near the exit of the tunnel
Now since we were with the dead and most of our clothes smelled like they were on the dead we went looking for a Laundromat. Our concierge directed us to one two blocks from the hotel. I guess he could tell we needed one! Once we got to the laundromat we didn’t have the slightest idea how things worked. Thanks to an Air France flight attendant who spoke English, we were able to operate the machines.
Cindy with our helpful flight attendant Bill hard at work doing laundry
Cindy writing a blog entry.
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