Andrew and I have been known to visit the odd attraction for a bit of morbid touristing. We added the Chapel of Bones in Évora to our Portugal trip because it sounded creepy (and it was). We also visited the Catacombs of San Sebastiano in Rome because I was tempted by the thought of exploring dark tunnels filled with bones a la Indiana Jones. I can remember being disappointed when there were no bones or skulls in the Roman catacombs. So when I read about the Catacombs of Paris, which are actually filled with skulls and bones, I knew it was somewhere I wanted to visit.

And that's basically what the Catacombs of Paris are - tunnels filled with skulls and bones. The tunnels were the solution for an overflowing Saints-Innocents cemetery. In the graveyard the dead were interred straight into the ground in mass graves. As the cemetery started to fill, the decaying bodies were not only very smelly but started to cause issues with the Parisian water supply.

The cemetery was a source of revenue for the church so they continued burials even when the graveyard was full to bursting... literally. In 1780, the cellar wall of a restaurant adjoining the cemetery collapsed and the cellar filled with a mix of bones and putrid flesh (yuk!). The government decided enough was enough. They closed the cemetery and moved all its inhabitants into the tunnels - abandoned stone quarries - on the outskirts of the city.

When the bones were transferred, they weren't haphazardly piled in corners. The bones line the walls of the tunnel and have been arranged in beautiful patterns. There is even one section where skulls are artfully organised in heart-shaped patterns.

So, are the catacombs worth a visit? Well, they are morbidly interesting. The inscription over the entrance reads "Arrête, c'est ici l'empire de la Mort"..."Stop, this is the empire of Death". The tunnels are the perfect site for an ossuary. They are dark, cold and damp. The average temperature is only 14 degrees and the sound of dripping water only adds to the atmosphere. But they are also long - the tunnel route is two kilometres and it did get a bit boring after a while. (They should add rats! and flaming torches! and Arab men chasing after you trying to stop you from recovering the Holy Grail! Hrm, that Indiana Jones influence coming through again. I think I just want to be Indiana Jones.)


Who knows, one day my bones may become a tourist attraction. As an avid traveller I don't really have a problem with that.

More photos (slideshow) on Flickr.

This time last year, we were living in Paris... *sigh*. As part of a work contract I had to liase with a French software company based in Paris to learn how to use a software program. Andrew finished his London contract a week early so he could come and join me. For a few wonderful weeks we lived in Paris. Being a technical author is a little more exciting when you get to do it in Paris.

We enjoyed our time in Paris. I worked and Andrew was a tourist on weekdays. We both went sight-seeing on the weekends. We learnt that to be truly French you have to carry a baguette under one arm. We fulfilled this requirement by visiting the bakery every few days to pick up a baguette to have with dinner. We were Feeeeeeeerrrunch! (For some strange reason, to be French you also have to drive along with your right indicator on. That's a whole nother story though.)

Now we're home in Sydney. Enjoying the beautiful weather (yay!). Enjoying spending time with our family and friends (yay!). I'm working as a technical author (... um yeh). We're happy to be home but last year we were living in Paris (dammit!). Let me take a moment to get over this....

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OK.

On one of our touristing weekends we visited Sainte-Chapelle, which is on the Île de la Cité in the heart of Paris. Sainte-Chapelle is the royal chapel which once adjoined the Palace of Saint Louis. It was built by King Louis IX to house holy relics that he'd purchased from the Venetians. The Venetians made a tidy profit earning 135,000 livres in the exchange. To give you an idea of just how much money this is, the chapel itself only cost 40,000 livres to build.

Chapel equals church which usually earns a meh from the Wilsons. In our defence we did see a lot of churches on our travels. Every city, town and village in Europe has a church as a tourist attraction. As our travels continued, it took something extra special in a church to impress us. And Sainte-Chapelle is just that, extra special. The inside is breathtakingly beautiful.

Instead of walls, the chapel has stained-glass windows. These windows are quite tall; more than 15 metres high. There are 15 windows in all and they cover an area of 600 square metres. So on a sunny day, like the day on which we visited, walking through the chapel is like swimming through a sea of multi-coloured light. I tried to take photos of the inside to capture what it was like but it was too hard. The photos I took didn't do the chapel justice. In the end, I stopped looking with my camera and started looking with my eyes. I took memories instead that I still enjoy today.

Andrew did a better job with the photos.



So Sainte-Chapelle goes on my list of must-see churches. (You know, there is actually a list. Of course there is!) Make sure you see it when you're next in Paris.

More photos (slideshow) on Flickr.