Bones

I am still in Paris and today I went to see the Catacombs of Paris. It was really weird. Picture being under the city walking around in a confined space and the walls are all made from the bones of people. Yeah, it is as creepy as it sounds. Got a few photos but we weren't supposed to use the flash so I'm not sure how they turned out.

On the way out the guy asked me to open my bag and I said to him "you mean people actually steal bones?". Yeah, creepy.

CDG -> FAO?

I guess I am really getting caught up in the vacation thing... I have decided to cut short my visit to Paris and fly to Portugal for the rest of the week. Nothing like sitting on a beach reading a book to relax at the end of your vacation...

More Photos

Just passed 1600 photos this morning. When I get back I am going to have a party and invite you all and make you sit through a slide show of every last one...

Paris

Ok, made it to Paris. Hopped on the TGV (high speed train) from Tours and got here just over an hour later. Found the right subway and got off at the right spot. Even found the hotel ok... imagine that.

Met an interesting character on the subway. About 3 stops from my hotel a guy got on and pushed people away from the poles at the end of the car and then put up a sheet with clothespins and hauled out a radio. Then cheesey music started playing and, you guessed it, he started doing a puppet show for the people on the subway! I was standing right next to him and got hit in the head a couple of times with the puppets; (his version of audience participation I guess).

Today did the Effiel Tower and all that fun stuff. Man there are a lot of tourists and the lines are long to get into things!

Long time no see....

Well, it has been a while since my last blog entry and no I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, I just have been too busy to get to a computer. We've been on the bike tour and it has been fantastic. Cycling through the sunflower fields in France, going to the chateaus, going to vineyards... everything has been exactly as advertised. I don't have time to write now, but I will write more when I get to Paris tomorrow or on the weekend. Right now we are hanging out on a terrace and there is an open bottle of wine and some bread and cheese which need attention....

French Lesson 3

lapin - rabbit
le pain - bread

Which would you rather have for breakfast?

French on Holidays

In the Rough Guide that I have, they say a few things about travelling in the summer in France. One of the things that they mention is that a lot of French people head to the coast for their holidays. Originally I had stuck to the interior of the country but when I headed out on my own I went for the coast. Wow. I guess they were right. Some of the towns were ok but some of them were insane. For instance...

They say that the Effiel Tower is the number one tourist attraction in France. Number two is a little place called Mont St Michel. It is neat because it is a small walled island with an abbey on it, etc etc. I decided to check it out and got there at 10am. Traffic was a little backed up so I parked in town and walked the 3km over the causeway to the island. Good choice because it allowed me to take some great photos. When I left town, the traffic coming into town was stop-and-go for 6km! And then there was the 3km to the island on top of that. Crazy.