Chocolat Chaud
We woke up early again – though 5am was a bit more of a normal waking hour so we got up, had our pastries, yogurt, and coffee, showered, sat around, and left the house about 8am. When we got to our metro stop, realizing it was freeeeeezing outside, we decided to have some hot chocolate and a crepe at a cafe to defrost ourselves. It was very pleasant inside and we stayed almost an hour before getting in line for the Cantacombs across the street.
The wait was miserable but shorter in the morning than it would have been later in the day, and once we got inside, 150 feet down, the temperature was pleasant and the wind was gone. The Catacombs were made over 200 years ago due to the fact that there was no more land to bury people in the cemetery. Talk about creepy: the path is lined with bodies (6 million of them) almost the entire way with some areas intricately designed to please the eye? It was so weird how some people touched the skulls as if they were fake – those are people, people!
It was quite amazing though, what these people built. Check it out:
hallway 1
hand carved in the 1700s
For foot washing
amazing architecture
Entrance to the Empire of the Dead
walls of heads
piles of bones
almost creepy, 6 million bodies
a well
And of course after walking through 6 million bodies covering 2 km, we were hungry.
a Royal Bacon- a requirement for Jeff
Conveniently there is a McDonalds by the nearest metro station to the catacomb exit, so I appeased Jeff by letting him get a little bit of something to feel at home. He has been talking about having a Royal (pronounced Roy-Al, not all) for quite a while. Nothing about it seemed to Royal except maybe the price – 6,30 Euros for that meal. But hey that small fries was actually closer to a medium in the states. =)
After getting back from the Catacombs, traveling through the bitter cold and snow, we ate some more then slept for 3 hours! We missed the alarm – whoops, but after all the walking I guess we needed it.
