Dave and Teneille's Excellent Adventure

I SEE THE LIGHT

Saturday was Teneille's birthday where she turned a number that I'm not allowed to mention. It has a three and a zero in it so make of that what you will. Anyway, what better way to celebrate your birthday than contemplating your own mortality amidst the slow decay of death in the catacombs of Paris?

An Aussie pub near the entrance to the catacombs.

We headed to the catacombs after a quick call home so the kids could sing happy birthday to Teneille. They were having so much fun at a sleepover they didn't care much for being pulled away to see us on a phone. Saturday was to be a big day for us because after the catacombs we were climbing the Eiffel Tower followed by dinner at the tower. The catacombs were too far to walk from our apartment and then the tower climb too soon after the tour of death so we were forced to brave the Paris train network. Someone may have gotten a little stressed and yelled at Teneille while trying to read a network map but we won't talk about that.

Teneille was the first person to take a selfie with skulls.

The catacombs tour was very cool and not just all about the bones. The story goes that when the Romans came to what was Paris they began building and expanding the area. They mined the local regions for building materials and left a bunch of holes behind. Years later, when Paris needed to expand to the south and east, all the new buildings simply fell over because of all the mine subsidence. So, they began reinforcing the holes and tunnels, creating the catacombs. Around the same time, they realised the population was expanding and all the cemeteries were full to the point of bones sticking out of the ground so they dug everyone up and moved them beneath the city. The estimate about 6,000,000 bodies are in the catacombs but our guide said he wouldn't be surprised if it was a lot more. And when you see the bones stacked up down there you see why. Piles of bones as high as a person that go back for 25m in some of the caverns.

Bones going back all the way to the far wall and as deep as a person.

Well, Teneille did it first...

We also learned the catacombs were reinforced by soldiers too old to fight but who still needed work. One of these soldiers actually spent five years creating a sculpture within the catacombs. It depicts an island in Spain where he had been held prisoner. The sculpture was of the view he had from his cell of the island bay. He loved his sculpture so much he tried to build a passage straight from the street down to his masterpiece. His tunnel caved in and he died. Oops.

The soldier's sculpture in the catacombs tunnels.

We headed straight for the tower after the catacombs where Teneille caught sight of her dream destination right up close for the first time. It was priceless. Our tour took us up to the second floor where we admired the view before heading up to the summit. Teneille was packing it while we waited for the lift to the summit but she was all good once we got up there. I was fine and amused myself by continuously barging into the annoying child in front of me who simply couldn’t walk when the line moved forward – he had to climb along the railing. After numerous selfies up top we went back to the second floor and then took the stairs to ground level. There was an old dude on our tour with a young, inappropriately dressed trollop hanging off his arm the whole time. We decided he was a sugar daddy of some description.

From the bottom...

From the top...

The sugar daddy and his... err... mistress?

We had a bit of time before dinner so we headed out the Champ de Mars to admire the tower from afar. Teneille told a number of gypsies/souvenir sellers to go away and was quite proud at how rude she had been.

Dinner was at Eiffel 58 - named because it is 58m up - and was delicious. The waiter who greeted us checked if we spoke French or English because, and I quote: "Your accent when you said 'bonsoir' was flawless". We were seated near a family from Switzerland who we got talking to. The wife was South African and the husband Irish but they live in Switzerland with their two daughters. Between them they speak about 10 languages and their girls about three or four. These kids are like 10 and 8 years old and they speak four languages. Mon dieu!

Teneille licking the Eiffel Tower.

More views from the top.

We headed back to the Champ de Mars after dinner to see the tower lit up at night and waited until 9pm to see the tower glitter for five minutes. The blog title is from Tangled and is in reference to the lights on the tower as well as the fact the song is about finding your place in the world. Given how Teneille feels about Paris and the tower it felt apt. "Now I'm here blinking in the starlight, Now I'm here suddenly I see, Standing here it's all so clear, I'm where I'm meant to be."

After we'd finished staring at the tower, and possibly because I'd had too much to drink at dinner, we decided to take our life into our own hands and get one of those pedicabs back to the Louvre. I only thought I was going to die one or two times.

Stunning at night.

The pedicab ride wasn't scary at all...

We fell into bed when we got back to the apartment because it was late but also because we had an early start the next morning for our trip to Versaille.