Recently had our relatives from the west coast and our grandparents visit us. The last part of the trip took place in Paris, and although I was sad to say goodbye to them, I had a very interesting last day.

On our last day together, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Rebecca, Uncle Jason, Laura, Eleanor and I all visited the catacombs of Paris. As we approached the entrance, we ran in to a little problem- the line was unbelievably long and wasn’t moving one bit!!! We stood in line for two hours before we were finally allowed in to the catacombs.

Once inside, we climbed down a spiral staircase that went down about 85 steps. At the bottom there were several rooms that told us about the catacombs before it actually began. We entered in to a long tunnel and walked down, coming upon little placards that told about the catacombs. One of the Placards said that the inscriptions on the wall were dates that told when that part of the tunnel had been constructed. Another placard said that the black “coal-ish” line on the ceiling was so people could find their way through the catacombs before it was fenced off.

We emerged out of the tunnel and saw tiny models of castles hewn in to the rock by a miner who had been kept prisoner in that castle for a large portion of his life. The miner did it all by memory.

After a few more tunnels we saw a well that had turquoise water in it. So, yes, we were deep. We left the tunnel and had walked for no more than 10 minutes when the bones appeared.

There were millions of bones: Leg bones, skulls, I think I might have even seen a few arm bones! The bones were stacked in rows on both sides of us with leg bones sandwiching a layer of skulls. While most stacks were very plain, or as plain as stacks of bones can be, some had the bones arranged in designs. Among the designs were plus signs, crosses and the infamous skull and crossbones.

We walked on and saw a column made out of bones before we climbed the 85 or so stairs back to the surface.

We boarded the Metro and relaxed and played for the rest of the day before going out to dinner, where we played charades and laughed as my Dad attempted to act out Close Encounters Of the 3rd Kind!

After dinner we went home and played more charades while eating dessert. Each person got 2 macaroons and 2 chocolates. Unfortunately not everyone wanted theirs, so we put the dessert in the kitchen (we were playing charades in the living room).  A few minutes later Simon, my 2 and ¾ year old cousin, comes in with chocolate all over his face and an ear to ear grin! Naughty, naughty, naughty! 

I wasn’t going to miss the Catacombs, but I was sure going to miss my cousins.