(Posted by Sage)

We took the T.G.V.  to Paris for our Christmas holiday. We had ten days of catacombs, cemeteries, Christmas and carousels…

Part # 1
Carousels

Here I am, ready for the destiny of Nine Rings

In Paris there were single and double decker carousels. There is even one where we had to catch rings with batons. (I caught nine and Anjali caught fifteen!)
One day, we stopped dead in our tracks. For there, on the Champs Elysees, was a carousel FOR FREE, but of course, on the sign it said, “Manege gratuit”. So after that, we all went on them a bajillion times.

Manege gratuit pour toute la famille

Part # 2
Cemeteries

Chopin: the decomposing composer

We went to two cemeteries in Paris. Montparnasse cemetery and Pere Lachaise cemetery. There were a lot of famous people’s graves there.  At Pere Lachaise we saw the graves of Jim Morrison, the famous singer, Fredric Chopin, the famous composer and Oscar Wilde, the famous writer.  For some reason there were lipstick marks all over Oscar Wilde’s grave.’

Oscar Wilde: the kissed grave

P.S. If you’ve ever heard the song Mr. Mojo Risin’ you’d better know that if you rearrange the letters of the song, you get Jim Morrison.

Jim Morrison: Mr. Mojo Risin

Part #3
Catacombs

Mysterious Roadsigns

Near the apartment where we were staying, there was an old building . We walked in and started going down, down, down a spiral staircase of more than one hundred steps. We had a long walk through a dark, damp, deep and dirty tunnel. All along the tunnel there were mysterious engravings like: 15.G.1782, 75.G.1780 and 83G.1878. We guessed that they were to mark the way. Finally got to a sign…

ARRETE!
C’EST ICI L’EMPIRE DE LA MORT

Ghosts?

We walked through the gate and stopped, gaping. There were the bones of six million people! They were arm bones and leg bones and skulls too. They were stacked really neatly along the sides of the tunnels. The place was giving me the creeps. Then, finally, we stepped out onto another spiral staircase, climbed it and found ourselves blinking in the sunlight.

Skulls and Bones Galore

Part #4
Christmas

Hello, it's Christmas time

Confession time. I woke up at about 4:00 in the morning to go to the bathroom, but I took a little detour to see the presents under the tree. There were a lot because Santa had been there since I went to bed. So I went back to my bunk. I was on the top rung when I heard the sound of feet approaching. I climbed back down, went into the hallway and saw Dad and he forced me back to bed. But before I went, I said, “Look under the tree, Dad.” Then I went back to sleep.
Later that morning, Anjali and I crept to Mom and Dad’s room, pushed open the door and yelled, “Merry Christmas!”
We had a very special Christmas dinner. It was a smorgasbord. We had Italian pizza, Vietnamese springrolls, French potatoes dauphinois, and Thai salad.

YUM!

Stay tuned for Sage and Dad’s “Boytime in Brussels”