Les Catacombes and Musée National du Moyen Age

Today, 2 January 2014, was our last full day in Paris;  tomorrow Eric and I are taking the train out to the Normandy region where we will spend our last week in France.  To make the most of the day, we set the alarm and got over to Les Catacombes around 9:20am.  The catacombs open at 10am, but the queue was already forming and from where we were it took us just over two hours to get in.  If anyone wants to see the catacombs, make sure to get there first thing in the morning and plan to be in line for a while; as it was, the staff were turning people away around noon because they would not be able to get in before it closed at 5pm.  Crazy.

Anyway, the catacombs are crazy interesting and the 2km that are open to tour are only 1/800th of what is really under the city!  I have heard rumors that there is a whole city under Paris, but the access points are closed off and it is technically illegal to get into them, but after what we saw today, I could believe there is a whole other city below the surface.

The catacombs came about in 1785 after there were so many illnesses and infections from what had been used for around 10 centuries.  The contents were removed and relocated to disused quarries left over from all the limestone that was pulled out to make some of the most famous buildings around the city.  Bones are stacked floor to almost ceiling and several rows deep and were meant to be a place people could come and pay respect to lost loved ones.  Very interesting, very old, and pretty dark.

Carved from memory by a guy that remembered this from the five years he spent in prison

Another carving from memory

Cool passageways leading to the catacombs

The black line on the ceiling was how people found their way around while in the catacombs

A heart of skulls

Cross of skulls

Small alter area

I see you...

A pillar made of bones and skulls

Skulls?  Stick man?  Who knows...

Just rows and rows of bones and skulls and it went on and on

After les catacombes, we went to the Musée National du Moyen Age (the Museum of the Middle Ages).  It was in an old church and monastery and was surprisingly interesting.  There were tapestries, stained glass, statues, and more.  Not one of the biggest museums, or the most popular, but full of beautiful pieces and incredible history.

Yay stained glass

These were on statues at Notre Dame, and during the Revolution people thought they were for French kings and knocked them off and tossed them in the sewers.  Some were found as late as 1977 and brought to the museum to be preserved.

We don't know if the hands and face were ivory or gold or some other valuable material

I love that lions were in several carvings and paintings, but the artist had clearly only heard about them... 

Ivory carving

Ivory box for church offerings

Don't blink... 

I like my monkey to be chained to my toilet paper roll as well, keeps them out of trouble and clean

What does the fox say?

So much detail in this one

I love the colors, especially the blue

Beautiful

Early sheet music