Sadly, today was our last day with Victor and A.V.. Although he did offer us another night at his flat, we declined, knowing too well the stress houseguests inherently put on their hosts. They have given us shelter, food, wine and conversation for the past five days, and we did not want to wear out our welcome. We found a cheap hostel off the Metro 9-Voltaire, for $30 Euro and will go to bed early for our flight to London. Unfortunately, Ryannair does not have direct flights to London so we have to fly through Dublin to London and spend 10 hours of travel for a flight that normally takes 40 minutes…..but I digress….
Today seemed even colder than yesterday, but clear, and we spent our first hours changing public transit lines to go to Versailles, 45 minutes away. For those of you who don’t know what Versailles is, it is an enormous chateau which housed the French kings and family from Louis XIV to Louis XVI. Picture is the "hall of mirrors" at Versailles. This was especially incredible because mirrors were difficult to make, and afterwards all European ballrooms were decorated with mirrors in the same way....See the pictures uploaded to our fotki site.
We learned:
-Louis XIV reigned from 1661-1778
-Louis XIV was succeeded by his great grandson, Louis XVI at the age of 5
-small boys were wore dresses, and were handled only by women until the age of seven when they started their “male” education
-“Dauphin” or dolphin in French, was coined during that era to mean prince
-The peace treaty to end WW1 was signed there in 1919.
-Ben Franklin visited Louis XV there
Am I boring you yet?
I assure you the details made our visit so much more interesting!

Afterwards, we ate cheese, salami and baguettes we bought the night before on the train to Paris. Straight from this train, we decided to visit the catacombs.

In the middle of the 1700’s a virulent disease (plague maybe??) was killing people faster than they could be buried, and several cemeteries were exhumed and moved far underground to make space-efficient graves. Priests with carts walked through the streets, calling for Parisians to bring out their dead. These bodies were covered with black tarps, then moved to the catacombs. Sometime in the next century, the remains were organized artistically (which still seems extremely strange and almost disrespectful) for tours. Millions of Parisian remains are there, and it was very spooky to traverse the dank tunnels underground. My claustrophobia kicked in mildly, but after a few moments to relax, I made my way all the way down.

It was dark, wet, and haunting to see millions of skulls and bones arranged neatly in piles stacked along the walls ….Troy took a few pictures, at my dismay. I saw some remains vandalized with marks from pen, and some individuals even touched the skulls in front of me!! How you could desecrate ancient remains is beyond me, but perhaps they will be haunted with bad luck (I hope!)We thought it would be a good site to film MTV’s “Fear”, but I would guess the French would not allow something like this. On our walk out we both joked about some young idiot back-packers taking a skull or tibia for a sick souvenir, and were surprised when the attendant checked our bags at the end of the tour!!! I guess remains are not worth as much as the Mona Lisa to the Parisians, which was roped off by 15 ft and covered with protective, bulletproof glass???

We are eating more baguettes as I type, and finally doing some laundry ( at 8 euro per load I might add) so we don’t stink!


For our last night in Paris I thought I would add some important items for an American’s first time in Paris:
1. Do not look for street signs actually ON the street. Parisians feel a small plaque on a nearby building suffices for navigational purposes ( we discovered this after walking in circles by the train station)
2. Have money ready if you need to use the bathroom. .60 euro for a urinal and 1.00 euro for a stall J, no I’m not kidding.
3. You will be surprised at the number of Americans in Paris, and disgusted with the number of Americans at the Eiffel Tower
a. Do not try to ascend the tower unless you want to pay 11 euro, be herded like an animal, packed into a small elevator like a sardine, only to reach the top and be sick ( like me J). The whole affair took over two hours
4. You can get Heineken in vending machines for the same price as soda
5. The small toilet-ish thing with a faucet in your hostel room, is not for urine or poop. We did not have a toilet in our room, only this confusing thing, and unfortunately in the middle of the night I really had to go :-/
6. Every bakery makes bread that is impossibly, ridiculously good.
7. They have stores here just for cheese
8. Parisians smoke. A lot.
9. Get a map of the Parisian transport system, BEFORE you arrive in Paris. Understanding this labyrinth is essential to a stress-free start.
10. Don’t expect to go into an internet café and type a quick email. The keyboard is arranged differently. You need to push shift for punctuation like a period/comma, and all of the letters are in different places. Troy and I took 45 minutes to type one short email upon arrival
11. Gas is charged per liter, and is the equivalent of 6 dollars a gallon
a. According to our host, a VW golf (luxury vehicle in Europe) is around $50,000!!
12. You won’t find Parisians wearing normal tennis shoes. Fashion sneakers (puma, adidas) and track jackets only
13. Levis jeans are 100 Euro
14. The Arc de Triomphe round-a-bout has no traffic rules. Just go man. Just go.
15. Paris in spring means 5 minutes of rain, then sun, then rain, then sun, on and on ad nauseum. Bring a rain jacket/umbrella
16. The French are not assholes. I’d be pissed too if obnoxious, voracious tourists were swarming my home and repeatedly approaching me in their own language for directions to the Eiffel tower! Be polite, make an effort and you will be surprised with the response-


See you tomorrow when we sign on in London!!!!