Thursday, 27 March, 2025
We have enjoyed some wonderful walks about the city. Parisian streets are busy but clean. Drivers appear polite when we cross a street – they no longer seem to aim for me like they did in the 1970s.
One can walk miles along the Seine. River boats pass, runners jog, and the noises of the busy streets become muted. Choose to walk or Metro. Either way, Paris has a lot to see.
Les Catacombes
We Metro to Denfert-Rochereau Ossuary, better known as Les Catacombes. Visitors are limited to 200 per entry time and I am glad I pre-purchased tickets as tours are sold out for days.
Found 131 steps and 20 meters under Paris streets, we find the Catacombs of the dead. Below the level of the sewers, below the water table, below the Metro tunnels, Paris buried millions of its deceased.
Living life on an island is great for property values but limits space. The earliest cemeteries of Paris filled to maximum, back in the days when plague, marshy pestilence, and reigns of terror created a backlog of bodies. Burial became a health concern and one of the worst offenders, I am told, was Holy Innocents’ Church.
This church cemetery, once the largest in Paris and used throughout the Middle Ages, often serving as a site for mass graves. After the church burned in 1787, the cemetery closed, transformed into an herb and vegetable market! This change was undoubtedly for the best, considering it stood just 300 yards from our hotel room. Its proximity to the Les Halles Market would be a little off-putting to the multitudes of revelers who currently invigorate its cafes and shops.
Public burial pits, overflowing with corpses, became a hinderance. What to do with the ancestor’s remains? Like the ossuaries and catacombs of Rome, Malta, Brno and others, the Parisians went underground. Deeply underground.
Bring Out the Dead
Over six million dead were relocated and carefully arranged within a vast network of subterranean tunnels stretching over 200 miles. Rows upon rows of skeletal remains—skulls, fibulas, ribs, and humeri—line the catacomb’s caverns and walkways. Here, the distinction between common citizens and the famous fades, yet among them rest revolutionaries Jean-Paul Marat and Robespierre.
Just a fraction of the tunnels remain open to visitors. An entrance sign warning “Stop! This is the empire of death” acts as no deterrent to descending some 300 feet. People slipped into these tunnels at night for secret explorations. In 2004, police uncovered a hidden cinema and café set up within one passage.
Perhaps a more interesting event was the goldfish experiment. Four frisky goldfish were consigned to the catacomb depths. While the fish did not reproduce and became blind, they survived. Goldfish usually do.
Museum of Paris Liberation
The Museum of the Liberation of Paris dedicates its collection to the liberation of Paris in 1944, as well as the resistance efforts during World War II. Located across from the Catacombes, it highlights the lives of General Leclerc, Jean Moulin and others.
There are excellent displays and videos explaining France’s entry and early exit from WWII. The museum displays original weapons, documents, uniforms, and personal belongings from resistance fighters. It focuses on the key roles of Jean Moulin, a leader of the Resistance, and General Leclerc, commander of the Free French forces, in liberating Paris from Nazi occupation. The museum also highlights General de Gaulle and Marshall Pétain.
I see many similarities between the events in France from 1939-1944 and the current chaos happening in the American political scene.
Here, the question was posed: “Who could have predicted, in June 1940, what was going to happen?”
I think the French had little to go on. Considering historical events which followed: “After…the defeat, France’s population was shaken to the core, public freedoms had been abolished, and French society was divided. People now had to live with the Occupier. They were faced with a choice between resignation and rebellion.”
Many citizens trusted Pétain, a war hero, to do what was right for them.
“For four years, all kinds of attitudes coexisted and evolved. Some people exploited the situation to make money or get even with their enemies. Others grabbed the opportunity to improve their personal circumstances.”
There survived no real winners among the collaborators. Appeasement didn’t work for French and won’t work for GOP collaborators. The French may not have seen it coming, but America has no excuse not to understand.
Musee d’Orsay
I love the building. Not long ago, in Parisian time, destruction loomed for the station. The original building acted as the Orsay Railway Station built in 1900. Today, its unique and soaring architecture make it one of Paris’ best museums and a pièce de résistance of Impressionism. Its collections emphasize the period of 1848-1914.
The galleries display artists from Impressionism to pointillism. Displayed are a plethora of superstars Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Degas, Renoir, Van Gogh, Cézanne, Gauguin, Seurat and Rousseau.
The museum exhibits a wonderful collection of sculptures and does an admirable showing highlighting my favorite, Auguste Rodin, one of the greatest sculptors of all time. Some of Rodin’s greatest works are displayed: The Thinker and The Gates of Hell.
For a refresher, we sipped a coffee in the 5th floor cafe. Most people will immediately recognize the gigantic clock facing the Seine and Paris.
We end our flagging Thursday in Paris with a 4.5-mile, 12,999-step, 16-floor day.
Farewell Dining
Lunch was a delicious bowl of soupe à l’oignon or onion soup. But woman lives not by lunch alone. After our day, we walk back to our neighborhood, seek out a cafe advertising Happy Hour, and settle in. Paris has civilized Happy hour hours!
Wine, conversation and Paris. Dinner is a dish of Ratatouille in honor of the movie. The perfect finish is Crème Brûlée.
I am certain, as we return to the hotel for our luggage, I will miss French food and wine. We metro to Orly for our final night in France. Tomorrow, we fly to Tangier. Though the last French troops did not leave until 1961, France formally granted the country its independence on 5 November 1955.
So, perhaps we aren’t totally withdrawing from French influences just yet.
We end our flagging Thursday in Paris with a 4.5-mile, 12,999-step, 16-floor day.
Go Parisians!
À ta santé
