GAI PAREE!!!

I know this is terribly late, but you know me...

Some big tower thing. it's very high. and quite pretty at night. We accidentally got a bit sidetracked in our apartment (come on, we had to finish our olives and rose!) and managed to make it just in time to go up in the last group for the night, so we had midnight atop the tour eiffel!

Our apartment staircase. it smelled like old and damp but was tres cool. There's Marge, wondering which level our apartment was on again...

FRENCH FOOD! ohhhh the cheese, the chocolat, the baguettes and croissants and boulangeries and fromageries and wine and rose and and and and and!

Does this cafe look familiar? Yes it is THE cafe from Amelie! It was a block from where we stayed and was so cute and sweet. I had tea and Marge had chocolat chaud. She is writing postcards, not fretting.

Montmarte - the area we stayed in - is really cool. Very bohemian, studenty, trendy. Then there are the million sex shops with the most unnattractive touts I've ever seen - way worse than King's Cross. And does anyone else think the Moulin Rouge looks totally crap? We decided to go to the Musee D'Erotic instead. Funny (and disturbing) stuff.

We were walking past the Notre Dame when we saw this poor little dog - it's owner yelled at it in French and made it sit in the rain with a little sign begging for money. I kept trying to leave with tourists but the nasty Frenchie would yell and it would sit there looking sad. And if anyone tried to take a photo Frenchie would honk a horn at them and demand payment. Hence my crappy spy photo. Aww poor doggy.

DAY OF DEATH!!!!!

We decided to do all the death-related tourist hot spots (hmm sounds inviting) in the one day!

The first pic is from the Catacombs. In the late 1700s, all these Parisians were getting horrible diseases from living so close to the unhygenic cemetaries. So some dude decided all the bodies were to be dug up and moved underground. Life above ground improved. After a few decades of this, some other dude decided the bones - from around 6 million deceased - should be arranged decoratively. So, you can now walk through kilometres of wet underground tunnels full of rows and rows of these nicely arranged remains.

Photo two is Jim Morrison's grave! Rather underwhelming I thought.

Third we have Oscar Wilde's awesome grave, covered in kisses.

The Parisians sure know how to make a good cemetary. Something we can all aspire to do.