After a fabulous, fun-filled week in Europe, it was finally Friday – our last full day in Paris. Our plan was to hit the Catacombes de Paris in the morning, pick up food for picnic lunch at Au Bon Marche, picnic in the Jardin du Luxembourg, visit the Musée d’Orsay in the afternoon, and then conclude with a sunset dinner cruise along the Seine. Well, you know what they say about plans…
Careful research on Trip Advisor showed that we should arrive at the Catacombs very early (around 9am), because the line builds up quickly and if you get there after the 10am opening time, you could be waiting for quite a while. There had been a mini-meltdown the night before when the late nights and early mornings caught up with me, and I just couldn’t stomach another pre-7am wakeup call. Dan was generous enough to suggest that we sleep until 8:15 (a total luxury!) and that the line at the Catacombs couldn’t be that long, could it? Famous last words – when we arrived at 11am, the line wrapped around the block. We got in line and estimated that we’d probably be waiting for about an hour, but decided that was no big deal. Flash forward FOUR HOURS, and we were finally near the front of the line. Apparently, they only allow 200 people to be in the Catacombs at any one time, so we were in a one in/one out situation. Had we known in advance that the wait would be so long, we might have decided to pass on the Catacombs on this trip, but once we hit the two-hour mark, we were committed. As you can see from the picture below, Dan was very patient. Knowing that we were waiting because I had wanted to sleep in drove me to keep my mouth shut about the wait and avoid complaining about anything.
We hadn’t had lunch yet, because we had expected to finish up with the Catacombs by early afternoon and then have our super-Parisian picnic. (This will come into play later on.) We were finally able to enter the Catacombs shortly after 3pm, so we grabbed our audio guides and descended 130 steps into subterranean Paris. The self-guided tour lasted about an hour, and while I don’t know if it was worth a four-hour wait, it was very interesting and neat. The Catacombs were originally quarries where limestone was mined for the buildings of Paris. In the late 1700s, overflowing cemeteries led to a sanitation crisis in the city, and it was ordered that all the church cemeteries be emptied and the bones moved to an ossuary in these old underground quarries. The Catacombs were consecrated, and church by church, the bones were moved under strict religious guidelines and ritual. The ossuary today holds more than 6 million skeletons, moved in two batches: first in the late 1700s and then again around 1850-1860. It’s basically a mass grave, and is sacred ground, and many famous people have taken the Catacombs tour over the years, including Charles X (1787) and Emperor Francis I of Austria (1814).
Like I said, maybe not worth a four-hour wait, but we definitely enjoyed our visit. I would highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in learning more about Paris’s history or is interested in urban development/architecture. We left the site around 4pm, now very late for lunch, and had to scratch the Musée d’Orsay from our list. The Musée closes at 6pm, and we did not have time to eat, get there, and see much of the art before then. Despite the fact that we have had our itinerary set for weeks, we decided to throw caution to the wind and rearrange it a little bit. Instead of the Musée d’Orsay, we would grab a late lunch and then walk over to the Champs-Élysées for some sightseeing there (originally the plan for Saturday morning). We made our way to Au Bon Marche, only to find that they were sold out of pre-made sandwiches…much like Thursday at the French Open, there aren’t many quick lunch options to be found (by us, anyway) if it isn’t lunchtime. Seeing another mini-meltdown emerging, Dan quickly navigated us to a cafe, where we ordered iced tea, Diet Coke and a cheese plate. The world seemed a little brighter with food, and then we were able to continue to wander around St. Germain, picking up two of the most delicious pain au chocolats, and settling for a minute to eat them in the Tuileries Gardens.
We then walked along the Champs- Élysées, and at first I was confused to see that it was full of trees and not fancy stores. Then, we realized that part of it was a tree-lined boulevard, and the part closer to the Arc de Triomphe was the shopping area. We didn’t do much shopping, but it was definitely a scene to see, and we snapped an obligatory street sign photo. Ironically, the only places we went in were McDonald’s (for a convenient bathroom stop) and Sephora. My French must be slipping, because a sales associate came up and said something, to which I replied “Non, merci “(no, thank you). The sales associates at US Sephora stores typically start an interaction by asking if they can help you with anything, but apparently all this poor girl had said was “bonjour, madame.” Oops. Just goes to show that knowing and reading French are VERY different from hearing it spoken!
We were excited about our dinner cruise, but were prepared for it to be a little cheesy and touristy. In fact, it was very nice. Our boat, Bateau le Calife, was on the smaller side, so it felt more like an intimate restaurant. The service was great, and the food was – once again – pretty delicious. The best part by far, though, were the views. Our departure point was near the Louvre, and around 8:30pm we set off heading east along the Seine, past Notre Dame and Île St. Louis before turning around and heading back west to just past the Eiffel Tower (which I have, for some unknown reason, been referring to as “The Statue of Liberty” all week). It was a lovely evening. The sun, which had been flirting with us at the French Open the day before, finally appeared for a gorgeous sunset, and we had such a relaxing time on the water. I would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting Paris! We saw lots of people with bottles of wine and snacks lounging along the sides of the Seine, so we’re putting that on our agenda for next time.
We are very sad to be ending our vacation tomorrow. Our flight is in the early evening, so we do have time to squeeze in one last event with a trip to the Musée d’Orsay before heading to Orly Airport. It will be nice to return to our own apartment, but we will certainly miss this city!