Family Trip Report - London, Paris & Amsterdam July 2016 PARIS DAY 6

Paris Day 6 7/13 continued:

Stopped at the hotel, picked up son, then on to the Metro. We easily saw the entrance to the Catacombs almost directly across the street from the Metro exit (Denfert Rochereau). It was hard to miss it with the line circling from the entrance all the way around the block! We were a little early for the tour, so there was time for a quick lunch. Kids spotted a McDonalds down the street, so we reluctantly headed there. You order from touch screens. We must be touch screen impaired because I think we had to clear our order out twice before getting it right the 3rd time! I hope these don't come to our local McDonalds! We ate quickly & made our way back to the entrance to the Catacombs for our City Wonders "2 hour Tour of Catacombs". Our guide was Kate, another American girl now living in Paris. She gave us a little history of the Catacombs while we waited for our entire group to arrive. There were 3 no shows, so after waiting a few extra minutes for them, Kate took us in.

I wasn't sure what to expect here. I was expecting it to be cold, damp & creepy, with a bad smell. It was none of those things! It was cool, but dry. I had brought a light jacket, but didn't need to wear it & I'm always cold. Daughter had seen a horror movie based on the Catacombs, but had warned the rest of us not to see it before we went. There was lighting, but pretty dim. One woman wore high-heeled sandals, not a good choice for this tour! It was really quite beautiful down there.

We weren't too far along when the 3 no shows showed up - 3 young men who had gotten lost. Kate must have asked the ticket taker to let them in to catch up with us if they showed up. They were very appreciative. Kate talked about the history of Paris at the time the bones were moved & why it was done. We saw the intricate carvings in the rock done by one of the workers - looked like a miniature cathedral. The tour took us into 1 area (possibly 2 areas, can't remember now) that the general public was not allowed into. An attendant would unlock a gate, let our group in & re-lock the gate. After we went through that section, we would come to another gate & be let out. It was amazing to see the care the workers took in placing the bones. My husband was fascinated & kept lagging behind to take pictures. At one point, he almost got left behind when the attendant went to lock the gate behind us. Lucky for him I was keeping track of him! After 2 hours Kate led us back outside. We all enjoyed this tour & really appreciated having a guide for the Catacombs.

After each tour, the City Wonders guides were always ready to give directions and recommendations. I knew the Luxembourg Gardens were somewhere near here & Kate gave us directions on how to get there. This was another place I was hoping to see before we left Paris tomorrow.

Paris Day 6 7/13 continued:

Following Kate's directions & also using our map, we started out for the Luxembourg Gardens. We walked for quite a ways before spotting a garden up ahead. There was a pretty fountain at the entrance, so we stopped for a few pictures, but kept walking. The garden wasn't what I had pictured. It was quite plain, no flowers at all, not what I was expecting. We walked thru one section of the park & could just see more of the same up ahead. Now I was sorry I had insisted we come here! We left the park & continued walking on the street beside it, working our way back to the hotel. I can see now, from looking at my map, we must have been at the Jardin Marco Polo. As we kept walking, we could still see the park from the street & suddenly realized that this part of the park was the Luxembourg Gardens! If we had kept going thru the park & read our map accurately, we would have found it earlier. At the next gate, we went into the Gardens. This was what I had been expecting! Beautiful flowers, the small lake with children sailing boats, the Palais due Luxembourg! We found a bench to rest for a few minutes, then walked around a little bit. Then the rain that had been threatening started. Not a hard rain, but enough to cut short our visit to the Gardens. Another thing on our list for next time!

We were all hungry again & decided to look for someplace for dinner before heading to the hotel. The kids spotted another Amorino Gelato store & stopped in for a pre-dinner treat. This was right by the Pantheon, so we got to see that, if only from the outside. We continued walking, going down some smaller side streets and came upon an English Pub. The menu looked good, son wanted another fish fry, but dinner wasn't served until 6:00, so we had some time. In the end, the restaurant was close enough to the hotel that we walked back to the hotel, rested up/packed a bit, then walked back for dinner. Dinner was good, but it took a long time for the food to come out. Son had completely finished his fish fry before any of the rest of the dinners came out. All the staff were English, so it felt like a real English pub.

Back to the hotel to finish packing. We had an early start to Amsterdam tomorrow!