An adventure then some shopping

Well, I had heard of 'The Catacombs'. Thought it would be an interesting place to see. I didn’t tell Pam a lot about it, perhaps I should have. The Catacombs were developed in Paris in the 18^th century. The buildings of the city of Paris are mostly made from stone which was mined underground, right underneath the city over many centuries. As buildings got bigger and heavier, the mines eventually closed. In the 18^th century the city was expanding and there were acres and acres of cemeteries using valuable land. It was decided to dig up most of the bones and place them along the walls of the tunnels built as part of the mining operation. Over a period of about 4 years about 6 million skeletons were dug up from several inner city cemeteries and placed in the 300 kilometres of mining shafts underneath Paris. They are stacked neatly, in some instances patterns have been formed by the bones. Altars have been built and ceremonies are still conducted by people inside the tunnels. The public has access to about 2 kilometres of the Catacombs, walking along a narrow walkway surrounded by bones. It is lit by some dodgy lamps hung with wire along the way. There is water dripping from the ceiling and the ground is white from the slowly decaying human remains. Only 20 people are allowed in at one time because there is not enough oxygen for any more.
Not Pams favourite place.
Needless to say she got through fairly quickly, knocking down old women and children on her search for the exit...all’s well that ends well...we lived!!! When we came up at the end the staff member asked to search our bags, I asked him why? He reached around and lifted up a human skull....someone had tried to steal it yesterday!!!!
Maybe an afternoon shopping may help her forget the trauma suffered at my hands??!!

As luck would have it there was a huge shopping precinct just metres from the exit of...that place which shall not be named.... Galleries Lafayette is the biggest shopping centre in Paris (five stories of homeware, four of mens wear and 10 of ladies wear) all distributed over a couple of acres – lots of retail therapy did the trick and Pam was able to eat tea that night. Still not sure if she’ll discuss this event ever again...and if she does I’ll get the blame!!!

Entry to The Catacombs - very nondescript building, inside there is a man taking money and a circular staircase down down down.....we only waited in line for about 5 minutes and we were in!!!