04 March 2024

France Day 3- Eiffel Tower

19 February 2024

France pixel art on street buildings

 I found this trend to be very interesting. We enjoyed finding as many as we did..














18 February 2024

Catacombs

 I’m sure that I was fascinated with the Paris Catacombs a little too much. Way too much. Six million people’s skeletal remains either stacked neatly into barrier walls or chucked helter skelter behind the walls to fill in the spaces in the man made caverns leaving neat and artistic corridors to explore. Only a very small portion of this is open to the public and Paris sure can charge you quite the large sum  to walk through it. 

I wonder and even googled if I could sign up to have my remains added to the underground empire of the dead.  My kids thought that was horrible because instead of being stacked neatly, my bones were more likely just to be thrown in the back area. I’d be fine with that.

I considered the resurrection on the dead that is set to take place before judgement day. Alma 41 teaches “Behold, it is requisite and just, according to the power and resurrection of Christ, that the soul of man should be restored to its body, and that every part of the body should be restored to itself.”  And 2 Nephi 9 says “wherefore I know that ye know that our flesh must waste away and die; nevertheless, in our bodies we shall see God.” I want to witness such utter chaos of scattered bodies being restored each body to its whole self. And then coming out of the catacombs in droves. I’m sure God can do it, and it will be quite a show that I want to see.

The rules state you should absolutely not touch any remains. They even forbid backpacks because when people turn around I guess they were too often knocking into bones on accident behind them. I kept the rules but I did have the desire just to touch. One human bone. Then I came to the understanding that quite a percentage of these people died of the bubonic plague! No thank you! When we did come home, Quinton showed me pictures of his mission. He and all his companions were all holding skulls and femurs as they posed for pictures! Ew! And naughty!

Looking at both the many walls and the heaps of mayhem of bones, I was most intrigued by the skulls. I connected that piece of the skeleton to a face, a real person, the most. What was their name and who is their family? Were they young or old? Did they have family and friends? Were they kind and thoughtful? What did they do with their life? Where were their remains originally buried? How long until they ended up here? Were holes in the skull the way they died or did the damage happen long after death? Does their spirit have any interest in the catacombs where their bones now lie? 

Mankind has long forgotten that  person as a specific individual. Yet there they are, well remembered because of the massive curiosity they are a piece of. 

I would love to see an expert like Brennan from the show Bones have a hey day with such a spectacle. Assemble a set of remains. Determine the sex, age, race, etc. What else could they unveil? How many people in the world could do this amazing feat?  

And then I reflect how unparalleled God is. To know a skeleton as the person they were. as his child. Their name. Their family. Their story. Their life, and death, and beyond. And especially who they are now. Because they are.

12 February 2024

France Day 3- more items of interest

Day 3 in Paris totaled 19,846 steps. I didn’t want to miss a thing. And although we took the metro, there were so many things in a small… “small” area that it was so much walking. Wonderful day!  Pairs was a week of a lot of walking. We earned our sleep every night.













So many stairs were literally worn down because of use. This was a common site.










This was closed. We couldn’t go in.




















We CHASED the rainbow!


This was right when we left the airBnB.  We were very close to a metro station, but I wasn’t happy to start the day with so many stairs.







I bought on of these 😁




 Quinton said this monstrosity wasn’t supposed to be here. Paris had laws in place to ensure the Eiffel towers was the tallest thing standing in the area. But somehow this was built.