Paris- day 4

Ok so on day 4, we went to the catacombs.   (click the link if you want to read about it)  We took the bus and thought that our metro tickets would work for it.  We put it in the machine and it beeped red light at us and I just went and sat down thinking nothing of it because the bus driver didn't say anything.  But when Laurel mentioned something about it and when I noticed the bus driver eyeing us, I figured our tickets were bad.  Whoops!  So we quickly got off at the next stop and walked the rest of the way!  The Catacombs were very interesting.  You walk in a mile long tunnel underground that is filled with bones stacked very neatly all along the way.  It was so crazy just thinking about how many bones were down there!  There was a guy down there who worked there and his job was to make sure people weren't using their flashes when taking pictures and to make sure people didn't touch the bones.  My first impression of the guy was that he was an angry mean man.  He was following these two guys with a camera and my thought was "let's stay away from this guy!"  But then he started talking to Laurel and he pointed out a lot of cool things.  He kinda followed us for a while and told us cool things and shined his flashlight on us while taking pictures so we could get a better picture.  He only spoke french, so we didn't understand everything he said, but he was really nice.   Guess my first impression was dead wrong!  ha ha.  

Someone offered to take our picture while we were down there and after he took the picture, we both realized that we made the same face!  We didn't feel like we should smile, so we just sat there with a kinda straight face.  So funny!

 

So that guy I totally misjudged about being mean and angry pointed out this "smiling" skull and shined his flashlight on it so we could get a good picture.  He also explained that when they have holes in their skull, it means that they were shot.  Pretty interesting.  And morbid.

 Anyway, the catacombs were a highlight of the trip for me.  Such an interesting and different place than I have ever seen before.  Quite a few people recognized my BYU sweatshirt while we were down in the tunnel.  One guy said he once played BYU in lacrosse.  I asked him if BYU had a good team and he said yes.  He said he was confused at the end of the game when all the players wives and kids came running on to the field.  ha ha.  He said his team was mostly 18 and 19 year olds, so they thought it was crazy that a lot of the BYU team was married with kids.  I thought that was funny.  

After the catacombs we found a grocery store and tried to buy an apple.  The guy at the register said we had to weigh our own fruit.  It was pretty cool.  You weigh the apple, a sticker prints out and then you give it to the cashier.  We walked over to the Luxembourg gardens.  IT was nice to see some green in a city where it is mostly cement!

 There were tons of statues, and cool trees and flowers. 

 We wandered through the gardens for a while and watched some kids having races.  There were a ton of tennis courts too.  We were getting hungry so we decided to look up a restaurant that we had been wanting to go to called Angelina's.  To our surprise, there was one right there at the gardens!  Wahoo!  So we walked over there and ordered some lunch and some of their famous hot chocolate.

 The hot chocolate was SUPER thick.  Like we couldn't even take more than a few sips.  I don't know how people drink that stuff!  It was so rich.  Maybe it's because I am used to the watery stuff.  But wow.  It was strong.  I ordered truffle ravioli and Laurel ordered a club sandwich and we split them.  It was a pretty yummy meal. 

These next pictures are from the Orsay museum.  It used to be a train station and now it has artwork and statues in it.  I thought it was pretty cool.  My favorite part was when my friend and I went onto the roof and sat down to rest our poor aching feet and legs and watched people take selfies!  ha ha.  It was entertaining!

I didn't take too many pictures of the museum.  Just the highlights and the paintings that I recognized.  That one of the two girls playing the piano was on our wall above our piano all growing up.  It was cool to see the original.  

Then we sat in these cool chairs.  I don't know if that is what you would call them. There were some people sleeping on them.  My friend told me to take her picture and then tried to find a pose that made her look comfortable and relaxed.  I just burst out laughing and couldn't stop. I think I was really tired.  

On our way home we snapped a few pictures.  The one where I'm making a weird face is my attempt at a selfie with the arc de triumph way in the background.  ha ha. 

When we got back to the hotel we had booked massages at the hotel (thanks Laurel!) and so we got ready for that.  My legs and especially my calves were REALLY sore because we had done so much walking and stairs.  So when the lady giving me the massage did my legs I had to really hold in screams of agony.  ha ha.  But really.  It hurt.  But I figured if I didn't say anything, maybe my legs would feel better the next day.  :) 

We had dinner at the hotel that night.  I ordered a cheeseburger and my friend ordered some fish.  I needed a break from all the french food.  :)

Next up- Versailles!