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Published: October 12th 2006
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A day of wondering and relaxing... Morning - Cemetaries! Today was a good day. We slept in until around 9am, skipped breakfast thinking we would find a crepe stand or a little cafe to eat at, I love baguettes but everyday for almost a week is too much! We hoped on the metro and headed over to the other side of town to visit Pere Fraichaise cemetary, it is the famous cemetary where Jim Morrison is buried. Not that we really cared all that much that he was there, it was more that it is one of the oldest and most beautiful cemetaries in Paris. The old crypts and monuments were fantastic! I've never seen anything like it before. There was a really cool one with a guy crawling out of a sarcophegus. I'll eventually get pictures up! Anyway I talked Jenn (not hard actually) into going and laying down in one of the monuments for a picture. They came out pretty cool. Gotta love digital cameras. We were hungry (well I was) before we even got to the cemetary, but hadn't found food on the way, so we honestly didn't stay as long as I would have liked,
and I know Jenn could have stayed longer. Its funny, you don't realize it, but we are spoiled in the states. I would say at least 90% if not more, of the cafes and eateries were closed on Sunday. I mean the ENTIRE city was semi deserted. We couldn't figure out where all the people went!
We gave up trying to find food near the cemetary and headed to what is supposed to be the biggest street market (similar to a farmers market) in Paris near Montparnesse metro stop. It was a little dissapointing. We had stopped at one to get food/snacks a few days prior and it was fantastic, we got these yummy cherries and I bought a small bird to eat (cooked!). Anyway we didn't find anything appetizing and headed on down the road to the Catacombs, which were only open for a short period of time on certain days. We got there a little before they opened at 2p and waited in line - there were only about 8 people ahead of us in line. Whats crazy is when we got out and finally found our way back around to the front, the line was all
Smart cars
Coming soon to the USA the way around the block!!
Catacombs... Early afternoon We paid our entrance fee (using our student IDs to get a small discount) and headed down the dark, slimy, twisty stairs into a cave like area. We walked through this tunnel for what seemed like forever, once again an area not designed for mine or Jenn's height. By the time we got to where the actual catacombs started my back was hurting from hunching over. I mean it was at least a mile until we got to some bones. The thing is though, instead of being still in body like shapes, and on shelves (once again what I expected thanks to the movies) they were stacked. People actually spent time gathering bones and making walls out of them! You have to see the pictures to really understand what I'm talking about. Anyway they were piled up and organized... Thousands of bones... It was really cool! We must have walked close to another mile when we finally found the exit, which of course involved going up another narrow, steep, slimy, dark staircase. Once out in the sunshine we had to guess on where we were, because it was not anywhere
near where we had entered into the catacombs. We found our way back and went to a bustling cafe called "le Rendevous." Our waiter was gorgeous. I mean drool worthy. Didn't speak more than a word of English... I ordered a fromage baguette, which the cheese smelled like a port-a-poddy and tasted just as bad. Kelley was really funny, when she thought we weren't paying attention she would blatantly stare at his ass! I will admit I made him blush, he was kind of checking me out, so I gave him my most brilliant smile, and he got a little shy and turned away. I can be a terrible flirt at times... Anyway after the cafe and the icky food we headed out to continue our lazy wonderings. We headed down to the Luxemburg Gardens where we found ALL of Paris. All the people who we thought were in hiding must have been here. It was amazing!
The people were just sitting around talking, reading books, drawing, paintint, playing games... It was really neat. We decided to find a place to sit down and people watch. Jenn and I got Nutella crepes, while Kelley sat on a bench with
a little old lady with urine color yellow hair! We would have stayed longer but the weather turned cold and grey and started sprinkling so we headed out the other side of the park to the Metro.
When we got back to our street, Jenn and I stopped off in the little market to get some snacks. We ended up buy a bottle of wine for 3 euros. Jenn and Kelley ended up having to go to the front desk to get the wine opened, and ended up outside on the street drinking, smoking and yelling "bonsoir" at passers by. They ended up getting a second bottle, and were pretty drunk by the end of it. I don't know how long they stayed out on the street, but I would say it was close to midnight or later when they came back in.
Anyway that was our last night in Paris. I have to admit I don't want to go. Even though the bed sucks and the showers are worse... I love the city and could easily have spent the entire 3 weeks there!
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