L'Arch de la Defence and the Catacombs!

Tuesday, May 3rd. We went from new to old in one day. It was cool to be in a modern setting again. Felt more at home, but I love the history of Paris. We Walked around la Defence and eventually made it to the arch, which I have further explained with a picture down below. After the arch, we went to the catacombs!!!! They were super cool. I have also further explained this with a picture below. After the arch we went home.  It was a relatively short and uneventful walk, but still cool. Tonight we had dinner with the family. It was super good and made by our host brother, whom we met for the first time. He's a great cook it seems. He loves cheese. I think we'll get a long. We ate some sort of soup, salad, bread, cheese, and ham and cheese pie. Delicious. Yogurt with sugar for dessert. After cleaning up from dinner we excused ourselves to do homework and go to bed. Still exhausted everyday, but sleeping much better now.  We finally went shopping, so now we have food to take with us instead of having to always buy something. Look at us adulting. Love you! 

This is the cool fountain from where we started our walk at La Defence. It was a beautiful, but slightly cold day. A bit too cloudy, but not bad.

 Admiring the beauty of spring. These blossoms are pretty. Carson thinks so too.

 It was weird after being in Paris for a bit over a week and only seeing everything being really old, to come to something that was built in the last fifty years or less. It was kind of refreshing, if i'm being honest. The neighborhood was cleaner. This picture reminds us of Star trek. We felt like we had stepped into the future.

 Not sure if you can tell,  but this building looks like it was made from legos. Just saying.

 
Sculpture thing made from cylinders. In our text book we're asked what it makes us think of, so here you go.  I think of water pipes, the ocean, bubbles, Meet the Robinsons, and secret hide outs. Oh, and pencil holders. ;)

View of the Eiffel tower from la Defence. Its so small.

 
Rainbow sculpture that looks like its made from giant, rainbow straws.  It apparently connects with the ventilation of the surrounding buildings.

 Passed Iron man on our walk. I thought I'd help him fight. We totally won.

Cool fountain in front of the arch. The arch is actually created from office buildings. They made it into an arch because they needed more office space, but didn't want to break Paris' sky line.

We made some new friends. They were a cute couple.

This is supposed to be a work of art by some famous guy. Looking at it I can't help but wonder, why?

These were inside the mall, behind weird sculpture, where we ate lunch. I thoughts these were cool.

Carson is the little man in blue on the left of Caesar's thumb. Carson is really tall in case you were wondering. This thumb is giant.

The view from under the arch, which could fit all of Notre Dame under neath it. You can see the L'Arch de Triomphe in the distance.

"I see things." "Do you see dead people?"

Waiting in line to see the catacombs. Cool lion statue. Life is good.

Meet my new friends. They're not a very lively bunch. ;)

I think the decorator got bored just stacking bones, so he decided to have a bit of fun it seems.  There was a heart made of skulls too, but I didn't get a picture of that.

Place where the ceiling could have collapsed if they hadn't reinforced it. Looks cool. The catacombs are made from quarry tunnels originating from the middle ages. These tunnels are immense and cover miles of distance under Paris. The quarry fell into disrepair after being forgotten. Some of the tunnels collapsed during Louis XIV's reign killing people and destroying the houses above ground, so he ordered the quarry to be repaired or filled in and then turned into a resting place for the over flow of bones from the cemetery of the innocents, which was closed because of health risks, it carrying too many people.