Bones

Went to the Orangerie in the morning - they've refurbished it since I was last there and it's got a really cool modern interior now. Obviously the huge Monet 'Les Nympheas' paintings upstairs are the main attraction but the extended galleries downstairs are pretty cool too, especially the way a lot of the paintings are hung in their original tarnished matt gold frames against raw concrete walls.

In the afternoon we finally got down to the Catacombs. Last time we were in Paris Tom really wanted to go and see the bones (despite being way too young - lax parent alert!) and I had to leave the girls at a café, go all the way down the stairs (and there are a lot of them?!) and then promptly reverse and come all the way back up (now moving against the flow of traffic, too?) when the little feller freaked out at the bottom and refused to go any further. He was still a bit nervous this time - despite being far too cool and teenaged to really admit it - and I think he was quite pleased to get around in a calm and collected way. It turned out to be his usually fearless sister who got 'a bit scared' two thirds of the way through and had to speed up noticeably to get to the end quicker? The Catacombs are a bit creepy, a bit macabre, but it's no Texas Chainsaw Massacre - rather a fascinating insight into the way we've viewed our own mortality over the ages and well worth a visit if you've the temperament...