Paris: Part 4

On my fourth day in Paris, I headed up to the Basilica of St. Denis, where a whoooole bunch of the French monarchy are buried, including Marie Antoinette herself. While it wasn't much to look at on the outside, the inside was a whole different matter:

Afterwards, I took a long metro ride down to the infamous Catacombs, ready to see some creepy stuff, and creepy stuff I did find.

For those of you who don't know about the Catacombs, let me educate you. There was once a time when burying people in the city of Paris was allowed, and then, after a while, the cemeteries became overrun. People were being throw into mass graves, that were only closed when they were full. That means open pits of dead bodies in the middle of the city. One of the most sought after cemeteries, Saint Innocents, the ground was completely filled beyond capacity. Not only did it stink up the place pretty bad, but all the lime used on the bodies and decaying organic matter was seeping into Paris' underground wells, where almost the entire city got its water from--hence, people were getting sick. Not good.
Therefore, sometime in the late 1700s, it was decided to shut down all cemeteries within city limits and transfer all the bodies and bones to Paris' system of underground mines. For a long time the bones just kind of sat around in piles, then, later put into the formations of skulls and femurs you see today and opened to the public.
When I was in Rome I went to the Capuchin Crypt where all these Capuchin monks were buried. In the Crypt they have all the bones laid out in intricate patterns. Some of the skeletons are even dressed up. In the very last room they have a plaque, which states: "What you are now, we used to be. What we are now, you will be." Quite jarring. You've just seen all these dead bodies and then you're confronted with a quote like that. No pictures were allowed, but as soon as I got out I wrote it down because it knocked the wind out of me. So as I made my way through the Catacombs of Paris, I couldn't help but recall it. Each one of those skulls was once a person, like you and me. If that's not a slap of mortality, I don't know what is.
But it wasn't all doom and gloom. I admit, I liked it, because I'm a nerd for the morbid.

Then I decided to quit the morbid stuff, and walked on over to Saint Sulpice.

When I got back to my hostel I met one of my new roommates and after the formalities of saying hello and where are you from blah blah blah, I asked her what she was doing in Europe and this is how the conversation went...
Canadian Girl: I've been doing a study abroad program in Germany with a bunch of Kentuckians.
Me: *blinks* Haha. That's funny. When I was in Rome a few weeks ago I met a bunch of girls from Kentucky who were studying abroad in Germany.
Canadian: Really? A lot of people from my program went to Italy recently. What were their names?
Me: *lists some names*
Canadian: *agape* I know those people!
Me: Holy shit.
Canadian: Small world.
And then I made her go to the Christmas Market with me, to eat crepes and sausages and hot wine.