Paris, 19 May 2012

Today started off with us heading to the catacombs.  The Catacombs of Paris or Catacombes de Paris are an underground ossuary located at  Place Denfert-Rochereau. It holds the remains of about 6 million people in what were once Paris' stone mines.  On our arrival, however, there seemed to be more people waiting to enter than were actually buried in the Catacombs.  Since only 200 people at a time are admitted, we estimated the wait would be between three and four hours so somewhat disappointed we trundled back to Montmartre.

To relieve our spirits, we went to one of the local cafés for a morning coffee.  As we sat there we noticed that a gentleman in a walking frame was crossing the street.  Several of the street beggars immediately helped him across and installed him in a table at the café. There is, in France, a general culture of helpfulness although it is sometimes honoured more in the breach than in the observance.  We have already mentioned people giving up their seats to us.  While we appreciate the gesture, we prefer to think of ourselves as generally still young enough to stand on the bus or the metro.  While we sat at the café, a woman came up on a bicycle and parked it behind a truck in the street.  People at the tables kept an eye on it and when the truck moved away and another truck tried to take its place, several of those in the café carefully moved the bike out of the way and then placed it behind the newcomer.

A good way to get your bicycle flattened

After our coffee we continued on to do our shopping and then went home for lunch.  In the afternoon we went to the English bookstore, W. H. Smith, in the rue de Rivoli. Getting there by Metro took us to the Concorde metro station.

Exit from Metro at Concorde

Signpost at Concorde

 As we entered the Tuilleries, we stopped at the lovely gardening bookstore which seems to have everything one could possibly want on that topic.

Librairie des Jardins

We continued to walk in the gardens admiring the wonderful view of the buildings along the rue de Rivoli.

A View of the rue de Rivoli

 The gardens have many areas which are clearly for children and the young at heart.  The sculpture of the flowers is lovely and fun, and there are many playgrounds.

Flower Sculpture

A playground for children

There are all sorts of delights for the young including the omnipresent carousels.  The French seem to have a love affair with these devices.  There are hundreds, probably thousands, in Paris ranging from quite basic one's to complex double-deckers.  After getting the books and magazines we wanted we returned home.

I have been reading some very enjoyable detective novels set in Paris in the later years of the nineteenth century.  These books, recommended to me by a dear friend, are written by Claude Izner.  This is the pseudonym of Liliane Korb (1940) and her sister Laurence Korb (1951) known as well as Laurence Lefèvre. The two women are booksellers on the banks of the Seine in Paris, who jointly write the popular "Victor Legris" series of crime novels. Legris is a bookseller in late 19th-century Paris who is also an amateur detective. The writers do their homework and have captured the atmosphere on Paris at the end of the century.  It is peopled with real characters from the era and events and individuals are often documented with footnotes.  For anyone who knows Paris, the settings are familiar which makes the stories all the more fascinating. If you are interested, start with "Murder on the Eiffel Tower."