Thursday, February 6 – Paris

I led off the day with a trip to Retromobile. The place was packed with people. Let me just say that the classic car hobby is alive and well! No wonder I can’t afford a Mini!! And this was a Thursday; I’d hate to see what it’s going to be like on the weekend.

My next stop was a visit to the Catacombs of Paris (thanks for the suggestion Ed!). These are underground ossuaries which hold the remains of more than six million people in a small part of a tunnel network built to consolidate Paris’ ancient stone quarries. This ossuary was created as part of an effort to eliminate the city’s overflowing cemeteries. Preparation work began after a series of gruesome cemetery basement wall collapses in 1774. Beginning in 1786, nightly processions of covered wagons transferred remains from most of Paris’ cemeteries to a mine shaft opened into the ossuary. It remained largely forgotten until it became a novelty-place for concerts and other private events in the early 19th century; after further renovations it was opened to public visitation in 1874.

I did a LOT of walking today (more on that to follow). Here a few pictures from my roaming…

Steps Update: I set a trip personal best today by accumulating 30,057 steps. And that put me over half a million steps for the trip! I’m averaging close to 16k steps per day, which is well in front of my South America pace. That trip was more than twice as long though!

Auction Results: Here are the prices achieved for the cars I highlighted in my Tuesday journal entry:

• Mercedes Benz Gullwing: $1.2 million
• BMW 507: $2.2 million
• Porsche 904: $2.1 million
• Jaguar D-Type: Did Not Sell. The estimate was $6.5-7.0 million. However, the high bid did not meet the reserve, which was likely the low value on the estimate.

Friday, February 7 – Paris

My last day in Paris, and the last day of my trip. It’s gone by so fast, but I’ve had a great time!

It’s a beautiful day in Paris, so I think I’ll just roam around and take in the sights. But first, there’s one stop I have to make…

Okay, I need to walk this off!

Observation: I mentioned previously that Vaduz is pristinely clean. Well, Paris is a dump. There is trash, cigarette butts and litter everywhere (Not helped by the fact that they still use paper tickets for the Metro. Really?); copious amounts of graffitti; and dog droppings on the sidewalk. But hey, it’s Paris, so they can get away with it!

I’ll have some final thoughts on the trip and a narrative of my return to Madison in my final entry. Stay tuned!