We started our day with a visit to the Paris Catacombes. The Catacombes date back to the late 1700s when public health problems related to the city's cemeteries led to the decision to transfer their contents to an underground site. Over 6 million bodies were moved here over the course of 12 years. The oldest bones dating back 1200 years, and the newest from the 1860s. We spiraled down 60 feet before walking a one mile route through the tunnels. The caverns were the result of all of the Limestone mining that had been done while Paris was expanding during the 17th-19th centuries.
After the Catacombes we walked through the rain to the famous
Rue Cler and enjoyed this very French shopping area. It was brimming with cafes, boulangeries, and specialty shops. I saw my first
Saint James (!!!), we shopped for a few things at a gourmet market and eventually stopped in to
Au Petit Tonneau for a three course lunch. (on Henry's list of things to do :) This was a wonderful, leisurely pause in our schedule and we must've stayed for almost two hours.
Next we walked straight to the Eiffel Tower! We knew this would probably eat up the rest of the day, and I'm so glad we had told ourselves that. Because of my foot I took the elevator this time and J, H, H took the stairs! Henry basically ran right up, but Jon and Havalah took their time and enjoyed the process. We spent some time on the second level, and then went all the way to the top as well. It was a lot of fun!
Dinner was a quick grab at the metro station, and back to the flat to pack up to leave for London in the morning.
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| buying a strawberry milkshake |
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| apparently it's a very French thing to do to bring radishes and sea salt to the table |
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| because it stopped raining for two seconds! :) |
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| Freezing at the top of the Eiffel Tower! |
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| you guys, this was a vending machine! |
The next day we rode the Eurostar back to London where we had just enough time to visit King's Cross Station and see the
Harry Potter platform 9 3/4 and official store. It was just as awesome as we'd hoped and I'm so glad we were able to squeeze it in. I did a little more shopping in London, we purchased some food for later (hello English sandwiches) and caught the tube to Heathrow. It was such a great trip - I'm so thankful that we were able to go on this adventure. Thanks for reading! :)
2 comments:
Great pictures! The catacombs are creepy!
I keep forgetting to ask....did you go to Harrods? When I was teaching at Kings a mom traveled to London for work a lot and bought me a Harrods bag. (you know me and bags!) I've completely worn it out. Some day my dream is to go to Harrods and buy myself a new bag.
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