We’ve just had a week in Paris.  What can I say, it’s an amazing City with so much to see and do, so much history and so much to visit.  The weather tried to dampen our spirits but it failed in it’s task!  And, I managed to do lots of things to feed my inner book monster.  We visited Shakespeare and Company – a gorgeous little book shop opened in the 1950’s.  This is only a fairly small space but every available inch is cram packed with goodness!

Cram packed shelves!

We walked down the Seine, the banks of which play host to a collection of old flea market type book and poster stalls – lovely to stroll by and check out the titles.  Not to mention all the famous bridges, a number of which have made appearances in various films over the years.

One morning we spent visiting the Catacombs.  This is a vast labyrinth of tunnels, the majority of which are not open to the public.  A number of these dark corridors now play host to millions of bones, transferred to these ossuaries to combat the problem of overcrowding in the French cemeteries around 1780 (ish).  The place is in fact an underground visitable mausoleum where the bones were stacked or arranged into various designs.  The corridors are marked with street names (from above) and various tablets with inscriptions.  It sounds creepy but it actually isn’t, in fact it’s incredibly interesting from a historical viewpoint.  Plus, my interest in the cemeteries and catacombs was piqued by reading Pure by Andrew Miller – which relates to Les Innocents cemetery which could be said to be the catalyst to use the catacombs for this purpose – and also I recently read The Undying by Ethan Reid – a novel in which the main protagonists use the tunnels of the catacomb to escape from certain death!

One of the oldest houses in Paris (in fact it is supposed to be the oldest) is that which used to belong to Nicolas Flamel.  Flamel is documented to have been an alchemist and if the name seems familiar – well, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone may be what you’re thinking of??

Now, if the next event doesn’t get your creative juices going then I don’t know what – we visited an amazing exhibition of works from the Ghibli Studio.  This exhibition explores the techniques used by Ghibli (which was formed after Miyazaki’s success with Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind).  I loved this and I admit it gave me a whole new found appreciation for the films – just to see the extent of the work involved.  Not to mention all the gorgeous illustrations.  If you get a chance, seriously, make time to take a look (details here – it runs until the start of March).  Plus, who can come away without goodies!!  I confess that I’m really regretting not buying the catalogue – which, I think, has the full exhibition contained within it’s pages.  And, the first thing we did when we got home – was watch My Neighbour Totoro and Ponyo!

Finally, and please don’t get the wrong impression that I’m incredibly morbid or something, but we visited Pere Lachaise cemetery.  This place is huge – if you’re interested in a visit – one piece of advice – get organised!  Yes, this is a cemetery but not only is it now the final resting place for many famous people (such as Oscar Wilde and Edith Piaf) but it also has some rather lovely sculptures to see.

Of course, in case you’re’ wondering – we did a lot of more regular sightseeing and touristy type things – because, wth – we were tourists!!