So on the less morbid side of the Catacombs, there are also some interesting art displays that have turned up in them as well over time.

This is a miniature sculpture or carving of a castle built in a recess in the catacombs. I'm not too sure when or why this particular one was built, but I do know that a lot of the catacombs, mostly the illegal ones, are great destinations for artists to go and create some amazing works.

I was very interested in visiting these illegal catacombs, of which there are over 300 miles of below the city of Paris, but to do so safely requires quite a bit of preparation and planning of which I didn't have the time for. But I did come across one of the mysterious people that gives secret expeditions of them, so perhaps next time I'll venture a bit more off the beaten path as they say.

So I've always heard about The Catacombes de Paris, but I never got around to visiting them, until now.

I spent the night at a friends house in Paris, who lived conveniently close to the entrance of the Catacombs. I woke up somewhat early, packed up my bags and checked all my gear, then did some last minute research online. I saw that (thank the Gods) I can use my tripod !

I was out the door and walking to the entrance, it was about a 30 minute walk from where I was, not counting the couple wrong turns I made.

So I get there, and begin my descent of I believe 130 steps down into a 3 mile long section of the Catacombs.

For the first little stretch I was packed in with some other people, but as you get into the tunnels, you tend to separate, till I was alone, besides the bones of the 6 million bodies of course.

There's also a lot of eerie and cryptic sayings carved into stones on the walls, speaking of Gods, Devils, and monsters. The feeling started to sink in the more I processed the idea that I'm a few hundred feet below Paris, alone, in a tunnel with millions of skeletons, and cryptic messages carved into the walls. But I pulled myself together and carried on.

I got quite a few interesting images from there, including today's photo of one of the walls of bones, decorated with human skulls in an interesting and eerie pattern.

I'll be continuing this story with more images and more details of the Catacombs in another post.

The question I find myself asking is "How risky am I feeling? ", as I wait in the line to enter the Notre Dame Cathedral, for this is one place they don't like you to use a tripod. I see a lot of workers there and decide I'll have to go hand held and hope for the best, because by the time I got set up I'd have heard the word "tripod" with a very French accent, preceded by the word "no", which seems to be a very popular phrase in Paris.

After I entered and walked around a little I came across an area with a few pews and one man praying with this brilliant beam of light shining on him. I almost didn't bother to take the shot because it was so dark in there I figured there's no way I could get it, but I stood firm, said my own prayers and fired off my bracket, to be pleasantly surprised when I returned home.

I really like this image, but I just find it interesting that people would come to such a "touristy" and noisy place to say they're prayers. I understand it is a church, and a famous and beautiful one at that, and that you're suppose to remain silent out of respect, but since when have tourists been known to be respectful ?