Sunday 9th January: Paris

After an unsuccessful attempt to visit Le Corbusier's Maison Roche this morning (closed on Sundays) we headed off to the Catacombs. This was by far the most dramatic of any of the sites we have visited on the trip. In the late 18th Century the cemetries in and around Paris were considered to be failing and unsuitable so the government decided to remove all the remains from them and bury the bones in disused limestone mines under Paris. The bones were not just dumped, but rather they were carefully stacked in ornate patterns which can still be seen today. After going down over 100 steps we walked through over 2 km of underground passages passed stack after stack of skulls and thigh bones arranged in precise patterns. This was one exhibition I was truly glad to see the end of.