Arrête, c'est ici l'empire de la Mort!

Or in other words, "stop this is the empire of death!"  About one block from the study abroad program’s center and right off the Denfert-Rochereau metro exit, lays the entrance to the Catacombs de Paris.  For 4 euros, we entered not sure what to expect.  After climbing down a narrow spiral staircase of 115 steps, we were in the catacombs

This is a picture of us in the catacombs

The catacombs act as a massive grave and have been open to the public since 1867.  Families would visit particular skeletons and do things such as change their clothes when coming to visit a body.  These dressed skeletons used to be open for viewing to the public but this area was closed off during the 80s.  You can probably guess why.

Today, there are just pictures of these dressed skeletons. 


The piles and piles of bones looked like a piece of art, each perfectly aligned and carefully placed:

This one had teeth!!

On the way out, our bags were checked for bones.  There was a small collection of various bones that people had attempted to steal just from that morning, I couldn’t believe it!

After the rather morbid visit, we walked to Jardin du Luxembourg-- quite necessary after being in the depths of the catacombs for an hour. 

 And I will leave you with that, a demain!
bijoux bijoux, Mary