Pittsburgh to Provence: Tuesday in Paris

Tuesday—went to the Catacombs. I waited for like two hours to get in! And they weren’t free, but that’s okay. I had sort of a “death” day on Tuesday; I went to the Catacombs, which obviously there are a lot of dead people there, and then I went to Victor Hugo’s house, who is also obviously dead, and then I decided to finish it off by going to the Père Lachaise cemetery where Oscar Wilde and lots of other famous people are buried.

SO MANY DEAD PEOPLE.

My picnic lunch! I love taboulé :D It's kind of like couscous, but you eat it cold.

Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo's Chinese room

The Catacombs were really cool! Literally. By the end of the tunnel, I was freezing. And I saw Honoré de Balzac’s grave, and Edith Piaf’s grave, and Frédéric Chopin’s grave (his Nocturne in C# minor is my favorite piano piece ever), and Eugène Delacroix, Jean-August Dominique Ingrès, and of course Oscar Wilde’s grave. Some of them were really hard to find! And then some of them people really crowded around. I guess if you’re famous, people like to see where you’re buried.

Frédéric Chopin

I saw this man taking care of this person's grave. I thought that was really sweet. In a place where there were so many famous people buried, it was hard to remember that regular people were buried there too, to take care of the graves of their loved ones.

Edith Piaf's family, with Théo Sarapo

Honoré de Balzac!

Oscar Wilde. His grave was surrounded by this plastic cage/fence thing, so people could write on it and leave messages and thank you notes.

EUGENE DELACROIX

That night, I really wanted to see the Eiffel Tower. I already went, but I wanted to see it lit up at night! So Kinki and I went to the Eiffel Tower. The terrace was closed because it was so late, but we went up to the 2nd floor (the halfway point pictured below). The view was still gorgeous though, and every hour the Eiffel Tower would light up and sparkle!