Paris, Day 4
Today we only had a few activities planned. The first was a trip to the catacombs under the city of Paris. These ossuaries under the city hold the remains of more than six million people! Tickets for the catacombs sell out quickly, but cost twice as much when bought online ahead of time. You can buy same-day tickets for half price, so I stayed up until midnight to book tickets and was able to get the first tickets of the day. We waited in line and then got audio guide to start our journey into the catacombs. We first went through a series of tunnels to get to the ossuary. The tunnels used to be part of a large limestone mining system that started to collapse, so something needed to be done to the whole tunnel system.
After walking through the tunnels for a bit we got to the ossuary. A lot of the bones came from the Les Innocents mass graves, but also from other mass graves and cemeteries from around the Paris vicinity in the 18th century. The audio guide said that every so often the bones in some of the areas have to be removed and restacked to prevent collapse. I thought the kids would find this scary, but they all were extremely fascinated.
I have even more pictures of the bones. I couldn’t deicide which ones to post! I like how every display is slightly different. The round barrel of bones is where an invitation-only secret orchestra concert for the Paris elite was held. This was definitely one of the most different activities we have done during our travels, and I am glad we got to experience it.
We took a walk from the catacombs to the metro, and after raining most of the morning the sun began to peak out from around the clouds. We were very lucky with the weather on our trip; it was supposed to rain all day every day and instead we only had a few days of full rain.
Our next stop today was at the Louvre. We took several pictures outside by the big pyramid thing. We had tickets for 12:00, and got there just a little late. There was a line to get in but it moved pretty fast and we were glad there was a free coat/bag check inside so we could leave all our stuff.
Just like with the Musee d’Orsay, I have way too many pictures here! Ronin thought the first sculpture of a guy stabbing himself in the eye was super cool, and we had heard a story about the second sculpture on our tour in Ghent. The story is that this guy was starving so he stole some food, and was then locked up with the punishment to starve to death. But when the jailors kept checking on him he kept getting healthier! His daughter was visiting him, and she was feeding him milk from her breast (eeeewwww!). When caught and brought in for questioning, she said an angel told her to do it. So I guess both of them were freed. The sculpture in Ghent was on top of a door into a church, which is interesting, to say the least.
Anyway, I like the two pictures of Willow just in awe of the big statues, looking up at the artwork and then at her map to find our next place to go. I had downloaded the Louvre’s ‘best of’ tour on my phone, so we followed the steps to the most famous works in the building. Ronin had a grand time defacing the pictures on the museum map, including drawing mustaches on most of the artwork!
The first famous statue was of the hermaphrodite, which was very interesting explaining to the kids why the lady had boy parts too. Then Ronin and Zoey wanted to reenact the sculpture of the boy fighting a goose. Willow really liked the lion statue and showed us his roar. I really liked how all the ceilings in the building were just as fancy as the artwork they were displaying.
We saw the Venus de Milo, and the kids wanted to know why she had no arms. Then we saw the Winged Victory, and they wanted to know why she had no head. These were beautiful displays of sculpture, but I liked some of the others just as much, like the one I took a picture of here. The iron gates were to the treasure room, where the crowns and jewels were kept.
The treasure room, or the Galerie d'Apollon, is where the remaining French crown jewels are held. I thought the kids would really like these, but Willow was the one who was most excited about seeing all the pretty jewelry. Willow’s favorite was the pretty sparkly bow. I liked the emerald necklace the best, but the crown of Louis XV was pretty impressive.
More famous works of art included wall frescoes by Botticelli, the Salon Carré and the Grande Galerie, and the Raft of Medusa. Some of these paintings were absolutely humungous, as shown by the giant painting of the Wedding Feast at Cana that sits across from the Mona Lisa.
We finally made it to the Mona Lisa! The kids have been asking about seeing her all week, and it was finally their turn. It took us about an hour to finally get to the front of the huge line. We were super happy to see it, but like everyone says, it’s a little underwhelming. We did make sure to get pictures of everyone in front of it, and take a few minutes to just look at the painting even though it was rather far away (and small!).
We continued in our tour and saw several other sculptures. The sculptures of The Slaves by Michelangelo were not where they were supposed to be, so we didn’t get to see them. I think my favorite piece in the museum was Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss by Antonio Canova.
After we saw all the western masterpieces on the list, we asked everyone what else they wanted to see. JonPaul wanted to see the sphinx, so we went to the Egyptian and Near Eastern collections. The first sphinx was huge, and then there were several other sphinx (sphinxes? sphinxi?) throughout the exhibit. We also saw lots of mummies and sarcophagi. Ronin found this small gold trinket that he said looked like one of the smushed pennies that we like to make. I wanted to see the Code of Hammurabi, so we took the long way around past the giant human-headed winged bulls and through the rest of the Near Eastern collection. This section of the museum was much less crowded than the Greek/Roman and Renaissance sections. The Code of Hammurabi is tiny tiny writing on this big black stele that was written around 1750 BC. It is the longest and best-preserved legal text from ancient Babylon. I’m not sure if everyone else was impressed, but I thought this was super cool to see.
Some of my favorite pictures of the Louvre are here. I got a picture of Zoey standing in front of a window arch with the pyramids and main building in the background, and a picture out of another window of one of the sculptures overlooking the square. I also liked the large rooms of the Cour Marly and the Cour Puget, which held a bunch of sculptures. Ronin really liked the sculpture of the little boy riding on a turtle!
We finally went to the apartments of Napoleon III. These are huge, elaborately grand rooms with lots and lots of gold and red. We liked the triple chair and the round sofa that surrounded the big plant. The chandeliers were huge, and I can just imagine sitting at one end of the dining room table shouting “pass the salt” to someone sitting at the far other end!
As we were leaving the Louvre we got to see the bottom point of the pyramid, reminding me of the final scene of the Da Venci Code. The kids were starving, so we were going to walk to a café down the street. On our short walk we passed this tiny crepe stand from the Pirate Crepe maker, complete with a little parrot on the side of his stand. These were absolutely delicious, and he made me a special one with nutella, salted caramel, almonds, and coconut. It was divine!
Tonight we went to Merik’s house to have dinner with the family. There were 10 of us in the small apartment, but we all fit! The kids immediately began to play with all the toys and became fast friends. The dinner was delicious and a play on fondue. The heater has these small pans that you put a slice of cheese in, and then once the cheese starts to bubble you slide it out onto the plate and eat it with bread, meats, pickles, or potatoes. It was so good and I think we may have to buy one of these things once we get home. For dessert we had kings cake, and Ronin won the prize! Zoey tried lychee, and she decided it was really good. Merik’s daughter is taking violin lessons, and she let Ronin and Zoey take a try at playing her violin. Ronin was unsure, but Zoey really liked it. I think she wants to start taking lessons now!
Our friends had a Switch and had gotten Just Dance for Christmas. We had a full-blown dance party—even the dads took a turn! Willow and Juliette got bored and went back to playing toys, but the older kids danced the night away!
While the kids were having a dance party, the adults were enjoying some adult beverages. One of Merik’s relatives had made some homemade schnapps, and we had several tastes. The schnapps was kept in a glass bottle similar to the bottles with water, and Juliette and Willow each poured themselves a glass of ‘water’ that was actually schnapps! Luckily, Merik caught them and corrected it before they took a big gulp of ‘water’!
The most exciting part of the day was that Willow lost her first tooth! The day before she told us her tooth was wiggly, and I was thinking it would be quite a few days before the tooth came out. Earlier today when she took a bite of the crepe her tooth started bleeding and she cried because she bit down on it wrong. But then after dinner while they were playing Willow came running over with her tooth in her hand! She was so excited to lose her first tooth, and even more excited that the tooth fairy would visit!
It was a wonderful evening with great food and friends. Merik was kind enough to get us an Uber for our trip back home. Instead of almost an hour on the metro, it only took us 20 minutes to get to the hotel.
