Warning skulls and bones, keep reading if you dare to see what we have seen

19 April 2008- You can see it was a good day, some clouds but you can make out Sacre Coeur in the distance. And the chesnut trees are filling in all the spaces so it feels a bit more springlike.
Today's agenda was a trip to Les Catacombs for Chad and I. It has finally reopened after several months of closures due to renovations. We walked right in and let them inspect that I had nothing in my bag other than usual Paris fare (umbrella, gloves, hat, bottle of water). Then we descended down the spiral staircase until we were dizzy and approached the tunnels under Paris. Now from my tour yesterday, the guide informed us that over 300 km of tunnels/mines/inspection spots are under the city. Over 100 km alone are under the 5th (our neighborhood) and 14th Arrondissment (home to the catacombs). These are sometimes 20 m under the surface. So I wasn't exaggerating, I was a bit dizzy from all the spiralling. The tunnels are amazing. Pillars, stone and markings make them up. Then you approach a doorway marked

"Arrete, C'est ici la empire de la mort!"

Stop, here is the empire of the dead. Rooms and tunnels are about eye level full of long bones and skulls from the several cemeteries throughout Paris that were experiencing an overload of bodies. About 4 million give or take. Without room, Paris would have been over-run with corpses and skeletons. And after Madame Guillotine got involved with the French, they couldn't hope to keep up with the many more bodies that were joining their ranks. So they decided to start placing the anonymous remains here. They did most of the transfers of remains at night with two priests and a black draped carriage. Ooh creepy. It is rather odd to be walking through rooms of bones. At one point they have arranged the skulls in a very decorative door and arch manner. No flash photography and the picture didn't come out well without a tripod. I have included a picture with Chad/Earl (dude cannot keep his eyes open) again for scale on how short the tunnels are and how tall the bones are stacked. Real bones and several feet thick. Some of the skulls you can make out the fissures where the bones grew together and others the manner of death. Bullet holes are bullet holes. Even this out of work forensic analyst can make that determination.
This is definitely not the place for nervous nellies or claustrophobics. Both of us had to stoop along the way. They have included an emergency callbox along the way but once you are in, you must continue. You enter at one location and come up about 1 km later. One way traffic only. Insert spooky cackle here. You get checked on the way out to make sure you didn't take any "souvenirs". On our way home, quite the line had clotted up the entrance. Nanny nanny boo boo hey hey, we didn't wait at all.
Then as Chad napped, I went out on the balcony to enjoy some wine and hear the jazz trio that had just ventured up from Mouffetard. The weasel Junior joined me and surveyed his kingdom. He seemed a bit spooked out there. He walked the length to inspect and saw his feeder from the other side of the glass. I didn't have to convince him to come inside when the music stopped. He was done inspecting Paris. Then it was his naptime from his perch on the chair on the other side of the windows.