Day 3: la jour de la morte

zzzzzz

Still working out this jet lag; we woke up later than planned again. After some pain au chocolate (Steph's new favorite breakfast), we headed to the RER (big metro) to head to the Palace of Versailles. After spending a good bit of time trying to figure out the train schedule, we boarded, rode 1 stop, and got off after our train was unexplainably canceled. The alternate train to Versailles was a 4 hour trip so that plan was nixed.

Instead we went to the Louvre for some fine art. Museum passes in hand we headed in excited to see all the great works. We were equally unexcited to see the zillions of patrons that also decided to see the Lourve today. Since we did not want to be bumping into people all day long, we focused our tour on the Denon wing. There we saw many of the Italin artists including Raphael and of course Da Vinci. Like everyone and their brother we saw the Winged Victory, the Venus de Milo, and Ms Lisa del Giocondo, aka Mona Lisa. All in all a good trip in and out of the Louvre.

mmmm more jambon y fromage (Thad's new favorite lunch).

Next stop...the catacombs. Apparently in the late 1700's Frane moved all its dead people into the catacombs because the city began to stink too badly. Stephanie and I really enjoyed touring their (2nd) final resting place. More bones and skulls than you could imagine! It was 136 steps underground and very dark and damp. Unlike the Lourve, the place was nearly empty so we had plenty of quiet moments to take in the silence of the catacombs. After seeing all those dead bodies, all we could think was that we are truely only dust and bones.

Why stop at 500,000 dead people. We needed more! We headed to far East paris to the Pere Lachaise Cemetary. Home to some of the world's finest Parisians and world figures. Chopin, Moliere, Wilde, and most importantly Mr. Mojo Risin. RIP Jim.

Back at the flat, we went to the streets again to find a great Italian place. Pizza and pasta just seemed right on a cold and dreary day of the dead. Some fondant au chocolat and pain au chocolate capped off the night.