Boooooo0jour,

Happy 'day before' Halloween!

What a strange world we are living in where every store isn't overflowing with costumes and candies galore! Paris had been left nearly untouched by the Halloween craze that has swept through North America but that doesn't mean we can't have a little Halloween fun of our own!

Since, L'halloween is Natalie's favorite 'holiday', I decided to surprise her with a fun filled day of scary goodness (even though it was only the 30th)! Our first stop on our spooky adventure was les Catacombes in the 14th district of Paris. For those of you unfamiliar with the Catacombes of Paris, they are a famous underground ossuary.

The tour began first by decending a winding staircase 20 meters below the surface where you enter the tunnels of a limestone quarry dating back as far as the 11th century.

The quarries

It starts getting a tiny bit scary!

The "quarryman's foot bath" was a small pool of groundwater for the quarryman's personal use

Sculptures in the Port Mahon gallery were created by quarryman Decure who carved a model of the Port Mahon fortress where he was kept prisoner by the English while serving under Louis XV

As you move further through the labrythn of tunnels you approach what is known as the Ossuary. It is here that the remains of over 6 million people are stored in 780 meters of galleries. These remains did not always rest here. Most of Paris' large churches had their own cemeteries but overcrowding in burial grounds such as that in Les Innocents near Les Halles was causing disease and illness. In some cases the ground level of the church yard had risen 10 to 20 feet just from the volume of human remains!

The first human remains arrived in 1786 and were simply thrown into a heap. It was only under Napoleaon I that the site was renovated. Long bones and skulls were arranged in neat rows, providing a wall behind which the rest of the bones were piled in a jumble. Amongst the millions of bodies rest many bodies from the riots of the Revolution and the Reign of Terror that followed, including the body of Maximillien Robespierre.




Walking amonst the millions of bones was an indescribable feeling. I'm not sure if we could have found a more eerie place to spend the day before Halloween. But, if you are ever in Paris, you should definitely consider making a stop to pay your respects to the millions of souls whose bodies now rest deep below the surface in the depths of the tunnels.

After making our way up the narrow winding staircase and back onto the surface, I surprised Nat with a stop at one of the few costume stores here in Paris. We felt like we were back home with the pirate swords, face paint, and wigs of all shapes and colors. We picked up a few decoration for our apartment and headed on up the way to the fanciest candy store we have ever set foot in. Halloween isn't complete without some good old fashion chocolate!



We hope you all have a SPOOKtacular Halloween and stay tuned for a special Halloween Video Blog tomorrow!