Paris, Day Eight: Le Jardin du Luxembourg and Les Catacombs

This morning, Merritt arrived from Munich after a month of traveling around Europe on her own. Berit and Merritt have been friends since first grade, so we were psyched to have her join us. Our to-do list for the day was simple:  get ourselves 20 meters beneath the ground to walk amongst the bones of millions of dead Parisians in the Catacombs.

Two and a half miles translates to 13 stops on the 4 Metro from Arts et Metiers to the Denfert-Rochereau stop, where we ascend to find a ridiculously longue line of touristes at the entrance to the Catacombs where, during the late eighteenth century, Paris authorities under the order of Louis XVI transferred the bones of the dead from Paris' overcrowded cemeteries into a labyrinth of abandoned limestone quarries. In addition to clearing out the cemetaries, which at the time were part of a health problem, the stacking of bones in the abandoned quarries served to help prevent collapse of the ground in those areas.

Anyway, le ligne est longue, and so, guided by Rowan, we head to a Starbucks where large, frothy, caffeinated beverages could be obtained. Those needs met, we next found a grocery to buy meats and cheeses and a boulangerie for something to put them on. In a nearby parc, we gathered chairs together and feasted.

That parc may or may not have been part of le Jardin du Luxembourg, but that magnificent and, quite literally, palatial garden was where we ended up next. Bennett and I headed left to circle the palace while Berit, Merritt, Rowan and Griffin went right, where Griffin practiced his front handspring skills.

Eventually, we found our way back to the Catacombs and the line, and this time we chose to stand in it. Well, mostly Bennett and I did, sending the kids away to chill out in a cafe. After about an hour and a half, they came back to relieve us so that we in turn could enjoy street-side coffees. Another half hour passed, and we found ourselves descending into tunnels beneath the streets of Paris.

Once back in the Marais, we ate outside at a fast-food joint that served crepes, paninis, pizza and smoothies. Bennett had a crepe that included merguez, which the proprietor indicated with a mixture of beef and goat. When trying to convey this to me, he said, "It's beef and... 'baaaaa.'"
"Sheep?" I asked.
"No."
"Goat?"
He points at me smiling. "Oui!"

After Uno, ice cream. And sleep.