Paris - Day 4

Today was one of our best days! We got up early today and headed over to the Louvre. This is one of the largest and most beautiful museums in the world. It has been in central Paris since the 12th century, open to the public since 1793. The building has had several facelifts over the last 200 years. As it stands now, it is flanked by a beautiful glass triangular entrance. After seeing how big the space was, we decided right away that we should pick just a few "must see" exhibits. You could literally spend weeks here, as the museum holds over 35,000 works of art in over 60,000 meters of space!

The most famous painting here is Leonardo da VINCI's Mona Lisa. She is magnificent and certainly knows how to draw a crowd. She is very small, comparatively, to the other Italian and French paintings. She is guarded 24 hours a day and is sealed off by roping and a glass case.

We also viewed the famous Leonardo da VINCI's "Last Supper." Most of you will remember this painting from the movie, The Da Vinci Code. This is the painting that caused all the controversy, famous for the hand holding the knife and the magnification of a person accompanying Jesus. This painting was so beautiful and HUGE in size compared to Mona Lisa.

We spent a few hours at the Louvre and then decided to do some window shopping in the Champs Elysees area. Because all of the stores are closed on Sundays, we were limited to only window shopping!

Last, but not least, our final stop of the afternoon was to check out Les Catacombs!

Looking in almost any direction, you will see that Paris is covered in stone. Most buildings, bridges, sidewalks, and monuments are all built from stone. Most of this stone is actually limestone that was quarried locally. Many people don't realize this, but because of the large quarrying done in Paris back in the 12th century, there is actually a city underneath the city!

One such famous "city" or quarry sits just under the Left Bank. The main entrance is at 2 Place Denfert-Rochereau. The story behind this quarry (known now as the Catacombs is that in 1786 Paris' largest cemetary, Les Innocents , had become so saturated that its neighbors were starting to suffer from disease, due to contamination caused by improper burials, open mass graves, and earth charged with decomposing organic matter. After almost a century of ineffective decrees condemning the cemetery, the government finally decided to create three new large-scale suburban cemeteries and to condemn all of the existing cemetaries within the city limits. The remains of all condemned cemeteries were moved discreetly to a renovated section of Paris' abandoned quarries.

This effort took several decades. Bodies and bones were simply detached and thrown into the catacombs. No individual marked graves were made and no system was developed for stacking the bones. It wasn't until several years later under Napolean ?? rule that the bones were cleaned up and stacked neatly to make way for visitors and high-end society parties underground. By 1860 when the project was completed, the parisian government estimated that 6MM bodies were re-buried in the catacombs.

Once we entered the discreet green door, paid our 5 Euros, we walked down 185 spiraling steps. We then walked through several long tunnels under a stone ceiling that was only 6 feet tall. After a few more long tunnels, rights, and lefts, we approached some painted pillars surrounding a narrow doorway. There was a sign on top. Arrete! C'est ici L'Empire de la Mort -- "Stop! Here is the Empire of the Dead." This is where the 6MM dead now live and are stacked over 4 feet high and 15 feet deep!

"The catacombs are eerie—quiet (except for the sounds of water dripping from the ceiling and tourists chatting), dark (except for the dim floodlights and camera flashes). It’s hard not to notice that the bones of these millions of people are all pretty much the same. The skull of a revolutionary may be resting on the leg of an aristocrat; noble and corrupt, young and old, wealthy and poor, all are indistinguishable now. It can give you an entirely new perspective on the concept of human equality. It also, needless to say, gives visitors a very keen sense of their own mortality. It made me wonder fleetingly whether, centuries from now, someone might walk by my bones among millions of others."

I would definitely suggest visiting the Catacombs. It is not for the faint of heart, but it is the largest gravesite in the world and the structure is quite impressive!

After the quarries, we headed back to the hotel for some R&R. We were off for dinner and the Moulin Rouge show!

Dinner was excellent. We ate at this quaint French Restaraunt located in the heart of the left bank's gallery scene. The restaurant called, "Le Christine, " makes you feel that you have escaped Paris and are now sitting in the french countryside. This bistro has been retrofitted into an ancient stable and still retains the rough-hewn walls, authentic wooden beams, and charming courtyard, now made chic in the inimitable French style. It was so cute! We had great wine and shared salt bass and semi cooked chocolate cake........SO GOOD! http://www.restaurantlechristine.com/rue-christine.html

The highlight of the night was visiting the famous Moulin Rouge (the Red Windmill). Moulin Rouge is located in the red light district of Paris in Montmarte. Built in 1889, the Moulin Rouge offers musical dance entertainment for adult visitors from around the world. Much of the romance from the turn-of-the-century France is still present in the club's decor.

As you may knkow, the Moulin Rouge is famous internationally as the 'spiritual home' of the traditional French Can-Can, which is still performed there today. Over the years, the Moulin Rouge has lost much of its former reputation as a high-class brothel. It is now fashionable for French society to visit and see the spectacular cabarets.

As the can-can used to reveal more than just legs and panties, it is now recognizable for the long skirts with heavily frilled undergarments that the dancers wear, high kicks, hops in a circle whilst holding the other leg in the air, splits, cartwheels and other acrobatic tricks, normally accompanied by squeals and shrieks. As the dance is now more respected, it is also less crude. However, the choreography is always intended to be a little risque at times, somewhat provocative and 'a little naughty'.

This was definitely a tourist thing to do, but it was so fun! Part of the show included acrobats, clowns, Ventriloquist, Jugglers, REAL donkeys, women dancing with snakes under water, etc. Basically all the original elements of the show still exist, they just do it with more clothing on now! Although, I think Jeff thoroughly enjoyed the topless dancers! HA HA HA!

All in all, Paris was so nice. The city is so beautiful and the flowers were all in bloom. We are definitely going to come back and spend some more time here. I think the purpose of the first visit is to do all the touristy things, then come back and shop, shop, shop!