GoGoEm: Christine in Paris: Part 3 "The Aftermath"

Day 4 Agenda:
1. Try not to vomit
2. Catacombs
3. Louvre
4. Musee D' Orsay (Christine), Stencil workshop (Emily)
5. Louvre Ferris Wheel
6. Try not to die

OMFG, we seriously wanted to die. We had committed to going to the Catacombs at 10am. We left the house at 10am which was a miracle in itself after the previous night of drinking. From what I remember, here is a recap of our alcohol consumption...

Shared 2 bottles of wine at dinner with 4 other people
Shared 2 magnum bottles of wine and 1 bottle of vodka at the Opera House with 6 other people
Shared 3 bottles of Dom Perignon and 1 bottle of Belvedere vodka at Bagatelle with 3 other people

We should be dead, or comatose at the very least. We got home around 5:15 in the morning and were out of the house by 10am on a 25 minute train to Montparnasse. When we got there, the queue was in the exact same spot it was the previous day, so I left Christine, the zombie, in line and ran over to the patisserie to get chocolate croissants and water...breakfast of champions.

I think I agreed not to post this photo, but no words could portray how miserable we were, this captures it perfectly. Sorry Girl.

I'd like to think it was the croissants that did the trick, however, the queue was 2 hours long, so we also ran out for sandwiches and I ducked out of line for an hour to go to the train station and pickup prepaid tickets for the Louvre. Christine was a trooper, once we got inside the Catacombs, we got our second wind and had a bunch of tom foolery fun in the the 2KM burial ground.

um, yeah, its totally weird that we're smiling in front of skulls, right?

The catacombs were not just filled with skulls and bones, they were also filled with carvings and models, geological information about the age of the stone (50 million years), creepy corridors and stairwells. These catacombs labrynth all over a 2km section of the Parisian underground.

Statue carved into the limestone cave wall

creepy staircase into a well

This shows the age of the different layers of limestone behind the sign....

The walls of the Catacombs were literally lined with skulls and bones for nearly a mile. They said there were the remains of 80,000 people in there. Most of them were plague victims, but there are also a lot of soldiers from the French Revolution, whose remains were relocated to the Catacombs.

One of many prayer benches to respect and observe your loved ones.

more bones...lots of bones

This one looks like it got a bullet through the brain!

sweet sweater, Christine!

Ok, one can only look at bones for too long. Since, we failed at sightseeing the day prior, Christine and I had to conquer the Louvre and the D’Orsay today.

First, we walked around making up stories for a bunch of the paintings. I mean, really, why would you paint a naked man on a horse with a sword and a hat?

Now, that's better isn't it???

Then we had to go see the Mona Lisa, because that’s what you do. It was Mona Mahem. Look at all of the idiots trying to get a picture of the damn Mona Lisa…

And look at Christine photo bombing this idiot….wait a minute…

We had so much fun making up stories for each of the paintings at the Louvre, we lost track of time. 3 hours later, we had to break for our second round of museums.

However, on the way, we needed to use the loo. What? There are only 2 bathrooms at the Louvre Carosel. One you have to pay 1.50 Euros for. So we did. And, for the record, there is NOT colored toilet paper IN the stalls. But there is a personal attendant for each stall that cleans it before and after you go.

Dinner on Montmartre!

Frog Legs....when in France...

Crepe

Sea Bass

Christine's first frog leg!

Christine, licking the bones...

dainty....

Sacre Coeur all lit up...

Moulin Rouge!

Our last dinner in Paris was at Le Chalet des Iles in the Bois de Boulogne just outside Paris' city limits. Its the place I've gone previously that you need to take a boat to get to.

Marie joined us at Le Chalet des Iles as well as about a dozen bees that kept interrupting us during our meal. It was so f’ed up. The waiter actually grabbed my napkin off my lap to kill a bee on the table. The man next to us murdered at least 4 and we quickly finished our (very grown up) 4 course meal and retreated inside into the “summer party”.

It was a summer party + the remnants of Irish wedding guests. A lot of techno, a lot of weird dancers, some questionable clingy dudes and one creepy girl that wouldn’t stop trying to dance on us and we were out of there.

On Christine’s last morning in Paris, we decided to be SUPER touristy and have lunch atop the Eiffel Tower. Its served picnic style and was delicious and affordable.