Au revoir, Paris! Part 2

Three days in Paris and we were exhausted. It was decided, Monday was to be a relatively relaxing day-- after all, we were on holiday, and the weather was too good to spend it inside looking at more monuments! We slept in, then made our way to a local market where we put together a quintessentially French picnic: baguettes, croissants, cheese, sandwich meat, crackers, dips, cherries, tarts for dessert and a bottle of wine to top it all off! We then made our way to the park under the Eiffel Tower to soak up the glorious weather (it really was phenomenal) and eat our meal like all the other tourists there doing exactly the same thing. Délicieux! (except for the cheese we bought, that tasted like a metro station... I didn't think the French could stuff up cheese...). The Eiffel Tower itself, while prettiest by night, is still a sight to behold during the day from up close. Only when you get right underneath it do you realise how stupendously huge it is. Apparently when first built in 1889 for the World Fair, the Parisienne's absolutely hated it, calling it ugly and fearing it's collapse... And now look how much tourism it brings them, they love it! After our scrumptious lunch, we lay in the park for awhile before taking a cruisy walk back along the Seine. We then took our leftovers back to the hotel where we curled up, munching away and watching New Girl. Nice to rest our our poor broken feet for a day!

Tuesday dawned ridiculously hot and sunshiny yet again, we were off early to the Catacombes. They opened at 10, but after a quick TripAdvisor check, advice was to get there early as the lines got huge, so we aimed to get there at 9:30. Sure enough, the line stretched all the way around the block even half an hour before opening. The wait could often be over three hours (for an only 45 minute visit), and Harry and I had decided 1.5 hours waiting would be our cutoff. However, we had come all this way, and there was an Australian couple from Melbourne in front of us who helped us kill the time very quickly, and even though we waited for two hours (!!) we were at the front before we knew it. The Catacombes are a fascinating place. In the 1700s the city of Paris was using mass burial graves to bury those who could not afford a proper plot, but with poverty and disease rife, they soon became overcrowded with decomposing bodies. With Paris' main water source coming from wells, something had to be done to stop the infection and sickness the cemetery caused. In 1786 it was decided to move the bones from the cemetery to the former underground mines on the then-outskirts of the city, some 6 million skeletons. Upon entering Les Catacombes, you descend down far below the city, and after walking over 2km of twisting hallways, you come upon a sign that says "Halt! This is the Empire of the Dead". The bones and skulls are stacked up in walls, twisting pathways and in decorative columns. Seriously, wikipedia this place, it's crazy. Over with quite quickly though, and soon emerged from underground again into the blazing sun. Despite my abhorrence of the idea of eating Maccas while in a culinary capital, we were running behind to get to Versailles and Harry wanted to get a royal with cheese (a quarter pounder to you and me. I guess now is not the time to admit I've never seen Pulp Fiction...). Tastes better in Australia, however you can choose to have a Heineken instead of coke!

Off quickly to the train station to head to Versailles. When we got there, it was over 30 degrees, no shade, real frying weather. When we saw the huge line snaking around the square we were glad we had pre-purchased tickets! However, once we got to the front of the line, we were informed this was the line for people who already HAD tickets, it was just the bloody entry line! 40 minutes later, I was fried like a potato. Sunburn, ouch. Versailles itself is other-worldly, so opulent and decadent you can't even imagine people seriously living there. No wonder they chopped Marie Antoinette's head off. It is utterly massive too, we only saw the minutest bit and it still took almost three hours. Would definitely love to do this again in winter, it was so hot inside and crammed with so many people it was distracting. When we got out of the château, the gardens were closed... We still got to wander the main garden, but all the little individual gardens, and those of the Trianon's and Marie Antionette's palace were all shut. Supremely sad, this is definitely on our revisit list for next time. However, the parts we could go in (open to public) were also stunning, and we had a perfect evening and sunset there. Back to Paris where we went to Montmarte to find ourselves a restaurant to have a slap-bang up meal courtesy of my mother's generous euro donation. French onion soup to start, mussels for Harry. Some kind of amazing creamed chicken with fresh pasta for mains, steak for Haz, and crème brûlée all round for dessert! It came out flaming!! Fun. Thanks mum! We really ate only delicious food the whole time, I think crap food is a sin over there! Exhausted from the heat and the huge kilometres covered, we collapsed back at the hotel for our last night in Paris. Up bright and early on Wednesday for our train to Basel to my uncle's, with only a minor delay (who knew Basel in French was Bâle?!?). Have had a nice relaxing day today, but will tell you all about Switzerland in the next blog, funnily enough entitled "Switzerland".

Peace out xox