Strolling Paris, the Palace of Versailles and the Paris Catacombs

We got 12 glorious hours of sleep and nipped that jet lag right in the bud! After a delicious breakfast at the hotel, we strolled through the streets of Paris, including the quintessential Parisian streetscape at the Rue Clar Market Street. Sunday morning was bustling, with people buying fruits, flowers, cheeses, meats, pastries, wine and breads at all the little street side shops.

One heart-stopping moment along our stroll…Scott almost got hit by a bus! We were on a street that he thought was pedestrian-only, but it wasn’t! We didn’t even hear the bus until it was right beside him and blew its horn! We all about jumped out of our skin, and Scott was about 4 inches from being sideswiped!!

After that, walked over and sat in the shade of the Eiffel Tower, then headed to catch our afternoon tour of the Palace of Versailles!

See Instagram video at: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CiFJfnUDp6c/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Louis XIV sure knew how to build a palace! With design/construction starting in 1631 the Palace is almost 400 years old and the opulence and scale is just staggering! As Dan says, “opulence unimagined”!

All that shiny stuff that looks like gold on the Palace and fountains….yeah, that’s gold! The tours of the Palace and grounds don’t even scratch the surface of what is on this site (the gardens alone are 20,000 acres). Suffice to say, we were awestruck again.

After the Palace Tour, we were ready to relax a little, and what better way than to sip some wine (and beer) and have dinner at a lovely little French Cafe!

After dinner, we split up, with the boys heading to find some pubs in a lively little side street we’d seen earlier in the day, and Lori and Gayle heading to a tour of the Catacombs of Paris.

The remains of more than 6 million (yes, you read that right) people are entombed in the Catacombes de Paris, that was created as part of the effort to eliminate the city's overflowing cemeteries. In 1786, nightly processions of covered wagons transferred remains from most of Paris' cemeteries to the quarry sites that hold the remains.

Having seen enough skulls to last a lifetime, Lori and Gayle tracked the guys down, and we bar hopped our way back to our last night in the Hotel de Fleurie.

Side note: We met a lovely gentlemen named Guy (from New Zealsnd) on our Versailles Tour. After retiring from a career in finance, he’s turned to filmmaking. He is working on a project to bring light to a tragedy in his family business in the early 1900’s. The sinking of the passenger liner S.S. Waratah, owned by Blue Anchor Line (his family business) in which over 200 lives were lost, was like a mini-Titanic. He and his partners are seeking investors for the movie. We’re hoping to see it on the big screen someday! We’ll watching their progress at:

Www.waratahrevival.com

Versailles Tour Provider: Paris Trip

Step Count: 14,347 or 7.17 miles