Day 267 - Turin through the Alps to Paris

Chocolate for breakfast anyone?

We woke up still full after last night's meal. That said, you have to see the breakfast at this hotel. When you enter, you are greeted by a table of Turin chocolate broken up in chunks, along with other chocolate delights. I did say in yesterday's post that they take chocolate seriously here and this is proof. I managed two capuccinos and a tablespoon of yoghurt. The fact that I actually did not partake in the chocolate should be all I need to say.

The very pretty breakfast room at the Turin Palace Hotel.

It was a good thing we decided to walk with our luggage the 2 kilometres to the Porta Susa train station. it got the arteries unclogged.

From here we caught the train en route through the Alps to Paris -- a beautiful 6-hour journey.

Through the Alps.

The trip was a relaxing blur of pretty scenery, me drawing on occasion and Phil reading when he wasn't sleeping.

We arrived at Paris's Gare de Lyon station at about 4:30 p.m. and made our way to the Marriott Rive Gauche hotel by Metro. After a quick bite in the exec lounge (Amanda, you would have LOVED this one ... great food), we went for a walk around the area of the hotel, which is in the Montparnasse area of Paris. A couple of blocks away is the entrance to the Catacombs, the underground ossuaries that hold the remains of some 6 million people. We knew the odds were low that we would get in at the height of the tourist season, but we walked in that direction anyway. The catacombs only permit 200 people entry at one time, and there were at least that many in line in the heat. So we passed it by. Perhaps on another visit.

The catacombs were created when Paris cemeteries quite literally began to overflow in the 1700s. Cemetery walls were collapsing. Remains from several of Paris's cemeteries were moved under cover of darkness to the catacombs. In the early 1800s, the Director of the Paris Mine Inspection Service had the caverns transformed so people could visit them. He had the skulls and femurs placed into patterns sand used used cemetery decorations within the decor.

And that is enough for one evening in Paris after a long day of travelling. Besides, I can't really visit too much without Rebecca being here with me!