Paris in the Fall

I saw the Contiki people off at 7:30 in the morning. My roommate slept through it. Most were hungover. I hope the ferry crossing to England isn’t too choppy. (Or do I?) When I took a farewell picture and said goodbye to the crowded bus, they chanted my name. I felt special.
I am now alone in Paris and I noticed the leaves starting to change color. I’m going to return to Canada in a different season.
I only started functioning after noon. I went to a nice internet café and caught up on my email and a bit of blog transcribing.
Then the Paris catacombs. Because those monks in Rome did not sate my need to see skeletons. The site was near my hotel so I walked there. Then down some stairs, quite deep. It starts out as a standard dungeon crawl then you come to where the bones are stored. And there are a lot of them; Stacked all along the walls. Not much of an artistic attempt but there are occasional moments. No flash photos, so it is hard to take pictures. Before the bones I got someone to take my picture. She then dropped the camera, lens first. It seems all right except for a small dent.
No rats.
The exit was a third of the way back to the hotel. Then I still had four hours to kill.
I walked. I saw. I climbed.
The Eiffel tower. It took an hour to walk there. (Along the way a pigeon relieved itself on me. They are the lackey’s of the Pope. Just look at Venice.) Then I paid and started climbing.
329 steps to the first level. 671 total to the second level. 18 steps between the two floors of the second level.
After the climb, there wasn’t anything else to do. So the metro to the hotel. I grabbed my suitcase and then took the metro to the train station.
Right now I’m hurtling to Berlin. My coach is a poorer one. The ones with beds were already taken. My roommates are two Americans and three women from former Soviet states. They talk to themselves in a language I don’t know.