Catacombs: hallway, was in it by myself!

Catacombs: A tunnel worker carved this from memory

Catacombs

Catacombs

Catacombs

On Thursday, I went 20 meters below the ground and visited the Paris Catacombs!  There are more than six MILLION human skeletons dating back into the 1700s that are arranged in stacks in these tunnels.  It was a little creepy (especially since I wasn’t there with anyone) and pretty fascinating.  Would be a great sightseeing event close to Halloween!

Thursday night, my roommate Teresa and I went to the Louvre museum so I could take pictures at night.  We also came to an agreement that we will go out every night that we have left in Paris so she can see things at night and I can take pictures!  Awesome!

The Louvre museum (panoramic to come)

Cathedrale St. Alexandre-Nevsky

Time is going by ridiculously fast, so I recently made a list of things in my book that I still want to see.  It’s a solid page long.  Ugh.  Go figure.  On Friday, I looked up all of the places on my list that were churches and a few other places and went to see them.  It ended up being yet another dreary rainy day; it has rained well over half of our time here unfortunately.  A couple of the churches were having services so I wasn’t able to go inside.  It was still a great day though.  I saw Cathedrale St. Alexandre-Nevsky in little Russia, the main courtyard of Palais Royal, Eglise St. Germain located behind the Louvre museum, Eglise St. Eustache (a huge cathedral that I noticed when I was in the tower at Notre Dame), and the Fontaine des Innocents!

Palais Royal courtyard

Palais Royal courtyard

While I was by Palais Royal, I walked around the arcades and looked at the shops.  There were some really interesting fashionable shops that I walked by.  It was a lot of fun to see what they had in their windows; I didn’t dare go in since I was wearing tennis shoes, jeans, and a sweatshirt!  Hah!  I really enjoyed looking in the windows.

Couple number three

Eglise St. Germain

Oh.  I saw THREE brides and grooms while I was in the Palais Royal/Louvre area!  Crazy.  I’ve now seen SIX different couples in the city in their wedding attire since I’ve been here!  Since I always have my camera ready, I have started a kind of “Where’s Waldo” game with it and am snapping pictures.  Not to mention the ones I saw in the Palais Royal courtyard, I HAD to take pictures of (there were two couples there, both with their wedding photographers).  The rain made the surface of the courtyard reflective, which helped make a great place for photos!  And the third, well, it was a unique photo opportunity as well.  You’ll see what I mean in the picture.  What a fantastic job it would be to be a wedding photographer in Paris!  So many breathtaking venues for ceremonies and wonderful places to take pictures after!

Eglise St. Eustache

Eglise St. Eustache

Fontaine des Innocents

Friday night, my roommate and I had dinner at Fondues Raclettes on rue Mouffetard then hopped on the train to get to river to go on a boat ride down the Seine with Bateaux-Mouches.  CEA bought tickets for all of the students but we could use them whenever we wanted; Teresa and I figured night would be the best.  We got on the last boat out at 11 pm and just about ended up freezing but it was fun and really pretty.  Definitely a must-do if you come to Paris!