Catacombs visit makes a striking impression

Editor's note: Second-year students at Cottey College are taking part in the school's "international experience," in which students visit another country and learn of its culture, history, and more through educational modules and experiences along the way. This year, the group is visiting France. Following is the third in a series of columns through which Cottey College Public Information Director Steve Reed shares the experience with readers.

Bonjour, Mama!

Today was another busy day, but first I have to tell you about last night's dinner. What an amazing meal it was. I wrote down everything we ordered, but the long French descriptions didn't mean much to me so I'll skip those. We started with the best soup I've ever had. I wish I could tell you exactly what it was, but even our professor who is from France said there's not a good English word for it. It was a white creamy soup made from something similar to a Jerusalem artichoke, topped with a white mousse and a fried cheese crisp on top. I could have just had that, it was so good.

Next I had a very tender steak (Angus beef!) with a type of scalloped potato with cheese. It was called mille feuille (meel fie elle), which literally means a thousand leaves, but there weren't a thousand potato slices on my plate. For dessert was a hot chocolate lava cake with ice cream. The ice cream had a spicy pepper in it which went well with the lava cake. So good.

Today we had our first educational modules. I had 30 students who were going with Angela and me to the Marche d'Aligre (mar-shay duh leg-ruh) a large, historic open air market. The challenge with a group that large is that with the numbers of people on some of the trains, someone might not get on when we had to change trains. Well, that happened. Four of our group could not shove themselves on the train. Fortunately, they listened well and knew what to do. Plus I signaled them through the window, holding up four fingers and mouthing the words "Four stops." we got off of the train at our location and waited for the next one. Sure enough, they were on the next train. All's well that ends well when you have smart students.

The students love this market, mostly because they can buy a lot of food for not much money. They were buying baguettes at the bread store, fruit from the different vendors who had their tables set up on the street, and goodies from some of the small stores around the perimeter.

We found a small chocolate shop, Mama, that was to die for. All handmade artisanal chocolates. These little chocolates cost 8.80€ for 100 grams. I bought eight small chocolates for 7.30€. That seems like a lot of money, and it is, but then I ate one, and let me tell you, Mama, it was worth every Euro. I would bring some back, but I'm pretty sure I will eat every one of them first. Sorry.

Afterwards, a few of the students were wanting to visit the catacombs. I've never been, so I agreed to accompany them. There was quite a line, and we were worried we may have to wait a long time; however, we were descending into the catacombs in about 30 minutes. There were more than 100 steps down into the old quarries, and we walked quite a way through narrow limestone tunnels.

We saw some historical markers and carvings, but before we entered the ossuary (the place with all the bones), we had to pass through a doorway. On the lintel were the words: c'est ici l'empire du mort. In English it means "Here is the kingdom of death." That was both cool and creepy at the same time.

I'm not sure what else to tell you other than there were LOTS of bones stacked up shoulder high. In the late 1700s, Paris ran out of space for the dead, so they dug up all the bodies that had been in the ground for years and moved them to the old quarries. Some things don't change, I guess. Tourists have been wandering through here and looking at the dead since the 19th century. Even Napoleon III and his son toured through here.

After some exploring on my own around the city, and a good strong cafe at a local brasserie, I met up with a few others for dinner. Mary, Mari Anne, John, Warren, Marilyn and I went to the Montmartre area and dined at a small place called Cafe Bruant. I had the crepe campignon which was filled with ham, cheese, potatoes, and mushrooms. So good! After dinner we walked up to Sacre Couer, the basilica, which is one of the highest points in the city. We could see the lights of Paris spread out before us and the Eiffel Tower off to our right illuminated in golden light. I can't think of a much better way to end the day.

That's about it for today, Mama. We're off to Versailles tomorrow so I should get some rest.

A bientot! (See you later!)

Your loving son,

Steve