Six Million Sets of Bones

Paris has an interesting mix of history: beautiful, bloody, and downright bizarre. And my next day in the city was a great mashup of all of the weird history behind the City of Light.

It started out with the typical tourist destination of Notre-Dame. Notre-Dame is a strange sort of tourist destination. It is clearly touristy, you can take pictures, but it's free and often there is a service of some sort going on.

I really like Notre-Dame. It is an excellent example of Gothic architecture, and the grounds surrounding it are beautiful. It's on the island part between where the Seine splits. The cool thing about Paris is the city is literally built around the river. Conversely, in London, the Thames seems to be in the way. Anyway, I got some great pictures inside and outside the cathedral.

It was right at the beginning of spring, so some of the trees and flowers were in bloom. The city was just gorgeous.

Then we decided to go to the crypt, which is underground, practically right beneath Notre-Dame.

I hadn't been here before, so I found it fascinating. It was much more of a museum, but I learned a lot about the past of Paris. It was interesting to see the entire archaeological history of the past 2,000 years of the city laid out.

After that was the catacombs. I was super-excited to go to the catacombs. I had wanted to go on my first trip to Paris, but there wasn't enough time.

It's really cool, but not for people who don't like bones because there are an estimated six million Parisian bones in the catacombs. Basically, in 1785, just four years before the Revolution, the catacombs were built. Previously, the Cemetery of the Innocents had been used for 10 centuries, but had become a source of constant infection and disease. Hence the need for the catacombs.

They were built and consecrated and then became a place to visit. Various famous French men and women visited the catacombs in its early days, including Napoleon III and his son.

Basically you walk down a spiral staircase nine meters and then walk through some dark tunnels before seeing stacks of bones. There were so many bones. It was really cool to see some plaques from the Revolution and knowing that the bones had been there for almost as long as America has been a country.

When I was in Paris, I read Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, which is short vignettes about his time in Paris. It was really cool. I was sitting in the Luxembourg gardens and then I turned the page and literally read the part where Hemingway talked about walking through the Jardin du Luxembourg trying to find inspiration.

This had to be one of the weirdest mix of events in Paris. We saw a cathedral, an archaeological crypt, millions of sets of bones in the catacombs, and one of the largest public parks.

Let Them Eat Cake!

Yes. If I had been alive during the French Revolution, I would have wanted to execute Maria Antoinette, or not-quite-affectionately nicknamed "Autrichienne" (Austrian bitch). Just walking around the gardens of Versailles, while beautiful, would have been a slap in the face to all the people starving because bread cost too much.

My friend Mona and I decided to spend the day in Versailles on our first full day in Paris.

I had already been to Versailles, but it was still gorgeous. While the furnishings are a bit over the top, crazy Marie and Louis, the gardens are absolutely amazing. I got some really great photos from Versailles.

We ate lunch at one of the restaurants within the gardens. I had this really great pesto.

Also, we decided to just sit by the water and relax for a bit. I kept telling Mona that I didn't understand why people thought swans were regal and sophisticated because swans are vicious. And sure enough, a bunch of the swans started fighting while we were sitting there watching them. It was hilarious. They would grab other swans' wings in their beaks. Plus I realized that a swan's neck is actually really disgusting when you concentrate on it for a while.

After the palace, we decided to just walk around the town of Versailles. It really is just a cute French town.

Me Amo Barcelona, M'encanta Barcelona, J'aime Barcelone

We finally were able to put Marseille behind us and take an 8 1/2 hour bus ride to Barcelona. Even our hostel was better. Even being in the city so late was better. We walked around and found pizza at like 11:30 at night and felt totally safe. Definite improvement.

Barcelona is such a great city.

It was strange because most things were in at least three different languages - Spanish, Catalan, and either French or English. Catalan seems almost like a combination of French and Spanish, which makes sense because Barcelona is pretty close to the French border.

We found a really cool market - tons of fresh fruit, vegetables, fish, candy, etc. Plus really delicious and fresh orange juice and raspberry juice. It was the largest market I've ever been to. Everywhere you looked you saw fresh food. Other than the meat stands, it was cool to just walk around and take it all in. The meat stands were quite gross - pig's face literally hanging up and sheep's heads laying out to be bought.

We wandered through the city center and saw some of the Gaudi buildings. We walked down by  the harbor and sat in different gardens.

We went into the Sagrada Familia cathedral, which is still a work in progress. Gaudi was wicked ahead of his time for architecture. His buildings literally look like they're growing out of the ground.

And the food.

The food was amazing. I had a fantastic cheese and vegetable panini for lunch. We went back to the hostel's neighborhood - it was an upper-class residential area - for dinner. Our hostel was super cool. It had a roof terrace and a garden. And the staff were friendly and helpful. We went out for dinner in our hostel's neighborhood. It was such a stereotypical Spanish dinner - seafood paella and sangria. It was delicious.

My whirlwind tour of Barcelona definitely left me wanting more. I can't wait to make a return trip to this city.

You Have Got To Be Kidding Me

We were all psyched to get out of Marseille and head to Barcelona, so we grabbed breakfast and got to the train station two hours early. You know, just to make sure we got out of Marseille. Apparently the world was against us and had other plans.

The bus tickets we got in Tours said the bus would be at platform one or two, but the screen at the station said platform four. Of course we trusted the station screen that refreshes itself when the information is incorrect. As we're waiting at our platform talking about how awful it would be if our bus didn't show, a bus that said Marseille to Barcelona goes by.

Yes. It turned out that that was our bus, and the bus later that night was already full. We had to buy tickets for the next day because the French train workers were on strike so most of the trains weren't running, at least not direct services. And it would cost about $500 each to fly out. Anyway, we ended up staying at our hostel another night.



This totally reminded me of the Seinfeld episode when Jerry and Elaine go to Florida, and Jerry explains there three remaining days down to like 30 seconds or something between all the time they would spend eating, sleeping, showering, etc.

A Not So Good City Called Marseille

I don't really know how to describe my disappointment in the city that is Marseille. I was expecting it to be this fantastic city: I mean it is the French Riviera, after all. 

So, we walked to our hostel and then decided to get food, and it was later, probably like 11. Anyway, we see a freakin' fetish hooker getting picked up. As we later found out, this was par for the course that is the dilapidated city that is Marseille. Unfortunately, a lot of our down time was spent in the hostel either playing cards or talking or just lounging around.

We went to a beach our first full day, which was fine. I mean the water was beautiful, but the beach was pebbles instead of sand. The unfortunate thing was just how unsafe the city itself feels. We were walking down the street, and Mona whipped out the map to make sure we were going in the right direction. Lindsey and I both literally looked at each other and told Mona to put away the map before we got killed in the middle of the street in broad daylight. The men across the street looked like they were about to jump us in the street. Anyway, on our second full day, we went to Cassis, a small city on the coast.

Cassis turned out to be everything I think of when I think about Mediterranean cities. It had a bunch of outdoor cafes, tiled roofs, bright blue sea, and a sandy beach. We weren't able to stay long, so we wandered down by the beach and walked in the icy-cold water before searching for lunch. 

We found an outdoor cafe for lunch, and the food was pretty good. I had seafood pizza, and the three of us split a bottle of vine from a local vineyard. It's true; seafood in a coastal city is absolutely amazing. 

An Ernest Hemingway Kinda Day

On our last full day in Tours, we decided to just walk around the city before eating lunch down by the river.

We decided to have a picnic lunch a-la-Ernest Hemingway. We grabbed a baguette and a rotisserie chicken to eat by the river. We were already blocks past the grocery store, so we didn't have a bottle of dry white wine like Hemingway always drank, especially with his chicken and baguette lunches.

I got chickened out pretty quickly as did Lindsey, but Mona scavenged that chicken. Weird thing was, the grease was a strange neon green color, but the chicken tasted good.

We went out for Moroccan for dinner, which just reinforced my desire to go to Morocco. God that food is amazing.

Tours was everything I think of when I think about a smaller French town. Kind of quaint in a great way - amazing architecture, delectable cuisine, châteaux, croissants and wine.


After an anxiety-ridden airport experience, Tours was just the thing I needed. Besides one day of feeling terrible, I only have good memories of Tours. It was another city, like Belfast, that wasn't too touristy, and I can't wait to have an excuse to return.

Châteaux-ing in the Loire Valley

After a lovely breakfast of croissants, pastry, and tea, we went to the tourism office and decided to visit a couple châteaux, and the office provided a driver.

It was the three of us and a couple from the UK plus our driver, Pascal. The weather was gorgeous, and I loved the châteaux we visited.

The first one was called Chenonceau, and Pascal told us that the King had given it to one of his many mistresses, but the Queen Mother reclaimed it once the King had died.

Anyway, it was built over the river. The inside was classic royalty - everything was detailed, even the extremely high ceilings. The grounds were beautiful; I love French gardens.

Then we went to Amboise. Apparently, Leonardo da Vinci spent the last couple years of his life there. The castle wasn't as impressive, but there were these weird bushes there.

We wandered about the town - it was really cute. When we got back into Tours, we just walked around for a bit before calling it a day.