Skip to main content

Catacombs and the arc de triomphe

Day 3 greated us with yet more blue skies , but we decided to head deep underground


To the catacombes of Paris 
We traveled down a spiral staircase 132 steps, I have to say I felt a little dizzy by the time I reached the bottom.


The catacombs were created in around 1786, if you don't know their story you can read more about it here 
The bones are for the most part arranged in just neat rows, however in a few areas like the above photo they were arranged in a decorative way. It was really interesting in a macabre kind of way.



When we returned to the surface we jumped on the metro and headed to the arc de triomphe which we climbed to the very top,for yet another amazing view of Paris. I have to say I am just blown away by the carving in the stone of the buildings here, the workmanship is amazing.



After we finished at the arc de triomphe, we strolled down the champs ƩlysƩes until we reached the place de Concorde and wandered into the Tuileries gardens, where we got to see



Parisians enjoying the sun


And with a gelato in hand we enjoyed the beautiful gardens, with  their freshly planted flowers, and looked on in awe of the beautiful louvre building.

We then crossed the Seine hopped the metro and headed back to the 5th arrondissement ( our area)
 to enjoy lunch in a cafe, the menu did present us with a bit of a challenge but we managed to order and I have homework, working out how to decipher the French menu . . . . My high school French is 
not quite good enough . . . 

Tonight Gadget headed off for a journey on his own, so I have two days alone to explore Paris.

Tomorrow I head to the Paris opera house and to the L' Orangerie And I think I will have a little wander around the ille st Louis  

Until then

au Revoir

Googy Girl


Comments

Bonjour! I didn't get to the Catacombs! My Son today k me to the Arc de Triomphe and Champs ƉlysĆ©es and then to the Mercedes Shop.....that was pretty cool! The buildings in PARIS are amazing.....love the gold on them! Would you like me to pop over and help you with a Menu lol......I can decipher a lot of it...enough mostly to make sense! If you like Mussels try some Moules and Frits (Mussels and Chips). The Chips are lovely! We stayed on The Isle...sigh! So good that you ar getting to,post...I didn't manage that! Au Revoir till next time!
I have seen the catacombs on tv and that is enough for me to freaky to go down there in real life...........totally interesting..........
Anonymous said…
wow Trish amazing xx
Anita said…
Never got to the Catacombs but did climb those 200 stairs to the top of the Arc!! I was amazed by the detailed and intricate carvings in all the buildings....all done way back when without modern tools!!
Jan said…
I reckon the Catacombs would give me the heebie jeebies, Trish. ! Will definitely go up the Eiffel Tower and possibly the Arc. As for reading menus - I ordered different pizzas on our last trip and what I translated as green peppers were actually green chilis (wasn't my pizza though so not my problem!) Are you going to Monet's Garden? It's beautiful. Thanks for the tip re the Metro app; not available for Android but there's a bit of choice.
Janice said…
We haven't been to the Catacombs. Thanks for the link. It was interesting reading. We stayed in the Opera district on our first visit. On our second we stayed in the Madeleine District. We haven't been to the top of the Eiffel Tower, but had dinner there, which was pretty special. I'm enjoying tagging along with you, especially to the places we haven't seen.
Jenny said…

Enjoy wondering Paris on your own for a couple of days. Take care and enjoy . I loving your photos brings back lots of memories from 2002
DAWNIE said…
Make sure you get that baguette whilst wandering, the little corner shops have them, and Gallieries Lafayette have such yummy almond croissants too!

Popular posts from this blog

Toorale homestead - Louth

We set off from Bourke  , we had stayed the night at Kidmans camp , which was a lovely spot and headed off south to start the Datling River run. For the first few hours we didn’t see any river as our first destination was  TooraleHomestead The drive in was pretty good , lots of dust and a little bit of corrigation but really quite good  We seen some wildlife including an eagle  Bit blurry as it was taken through the windscreen of the car ,  Some Emu’s and kangaroos  The homestead itself is closed to the public except during school holidays ,so we didn’t get to go in but , we knew before we arrived that was the case and I was keen to see it anyway. Sir Samuel McCaughey in partnership with his Brother John and cousin purchased Toorale, Nocoleche and Dunlop station. Acquiring 800 000 acres of land and 130 000 sheep and 80 horses.  Eventually Samuel bought his brother and cousin out. He built the homestead in 1896 as a wedding gift to his niece. The golden years for the homestead were betw

Scrappy chook quilt

So I have been keeping this one under wraps, not on purpose mainly just because I have been a very lazy blogger. A few months ago, as most of you know I had a visit to chookyblue's place, whilst there I had the pleasure to sleep under some of her gorgeous quilts. But one in particular took my fancy I just loved the scrappiness of this quilt, the lovely colours but mainly just the simple design. So when I headed up to Nundle for my retreat, I sent the lovely Kerry a photo and she assured me she could pull together some lovely fabrics and guide me, to put this lovely quilt together. When I arrived at Nundle This lovely bundle of fabrics awaited me The girls and I used the black and white feature on the iPad to determine light medium and dark fabrics I spent 3/4 of the first day creating these squares, I think I frustrated Miss Joolz because I just could not be random, I had to be organised I didn't want to get end and end up wit

Burren junction - Brewarinna

Beds on Barwon We left Newcastle at a reasonable time on Friday morning not gadgets ( my husband) usual 4am start and headed west.  We really never planned this trip out as such we vaguely decided that sitting by a river with a fire was our plan , a chance to take a deep breathe and slow down our lives for a bit. Almost 13 years ago we were extremely fortunate to do the darling river run with some wonderful friends and thought that we would love to repeat that trip and hopefully see the Darling river with water this time.  However at this stage our plans are a little up in the air with the road to Louth currently closed due to rain and some of the national parks closed for the same reason. Soo where are we heading , not sure but wherever we are heading it will be an adventure. So on day one we drove to Burren Junction where we spent our first night of our adventure at a truck stop  This is our new travelling Duo Reggie ( car) and Ruby ( van) we decided last year it was time to say good