Author: Lassen Peak Photography

First up, nourishment was in order! We went to a cute establishment for le petit dejeuner, where the waiter accompanied all his actions with noisy flair (I watched him perform at Parisians’ tables too, so it wasn’t just for our entertainment).

Here we are, enjoying our boissons chaud:

(Our son took this one after saying, “Mom, no one’s going to believe you came on this trip.” Lol!)

(And here’s the one I took)

Next, we set out to visit the Catacombs. As we waited in line (like tourists again…we were tired and neglected to get our tickets the night before), we found ourselves in the middle of a labor protest. Complete with beaucoup de civilian AND military police! We wondered whether we’d need to flee before getting in, but thankfully our timing was right. And on the bright side, we met a great young couple out of Sacramento.

This was the backup to the backup Police at the ready:

The Catacombs were like descending into the bowels of hell. We kept going down……down……down……down the spiral staircase, for what seemed like an eternity. The smell was quite remarkable, like nothing I’d ever experienced. Not to mention seeing the piles upon piles of bones in the mass grave, some of them dating back to the 1600s. It is crazy to think about the people there having lived so long before the United States ever declared its independence from Great Britain! I did get good/spooky photos from down there with my ‘real’ camera, but it doesn’t have WiFi so they’re locked up until we get home.

Here we are outside the exit from the Catacombs (photo taken by the nice couple we met while in line):

While exciting, our day didn’t end there. Next up, Notre-Dame Cathedral! I studied the architecture of this cathedral in college – it amazed me then, and today I was awestruck seeing it in person. So much detail created out of stone and glass! There were services underway, so in addition to seeing the cathedral, we were treated to hearing the beautiful voices of the choir.

Here is the cathedral:

We then walked across the Seine:

And we saw the Eiffel Tower from a moving vehicle twice today – once this morning, and again this evening. I had no idea that lights literally run along it, rather than being static! It was very cool…we’ll see it properly when we come back through Paris at the end of our journey.

Here is the Eiffel Tower from our Uber:

We made our way to the local shops for dinner to cook again this evening. On the menu: breaded chicken (everyone loved it last night, so we decided to try another flavor), pork & caramelized onion sausages, sugar snap peas and tomatoes (my contribution), fresh baguette, and triple chocolate cheesecake. Mmmm!

Tomorrow we make our way to country #2 on our European adventure. Bon nuit!