Day 6 – Paris
Today we took a trip underground. If you didn’t know this already, there is a huge tunnel under the streets of Paris that is full of the bones of over 6 million people. Yeah, you read that right. Here is a little history about this place. Around 1774, the cemeteries of Paris were overflowing, and to make it worse, many of the cemeteries suffered from collapsed walls. The people needed a solution. So, in 1786, they began taking corpses by the wagon full to an open mine shaft, and pouring them in. Sometime between then, and 1874, they decided it would be cool to arrange the bones in fun patterns and open them to the public. So, these days, you can go under ground and walk through the tunnels.
I was worried that it would be the creepiest, weirdest place that I had ever been, but it wasn’t. It is definitely a weird place with a weird history, but it was actually really interesting to learn the history, and see the effort that was put into preserving the bones and displaying them. If you’re planning on visiting the Catacombs, make sure that you buy skip the line tickets in advance. Otherwise, you will wait in a 2-3 hour line. Waiting in a line for several hours is almost guaranteed without skip the line tickets.
After the Catacombs, we got lunch, and hopped on a train to Switzerland. Come back soon and read more about it.