Bones and tennis

After finishing his studying abroad in Morocco a few days ago, Kyle came to Paris to play in Europe before returning to the US. We've been prancing around Paris for a few days doing lots of exploring and wandering. Last night we had a picnic at Montmartre with Middkids; unforunately rain pushed us onto the steps of the church and then the guards kicked us off. Unable to think of another public space out of the rain that would fit all of us and allow us to picnic, we headed to the waiting area in Gare Saint-Lazare (train station) and finished our picnic there. After all of our lovely sunny picnics in beautiful parks around Paris, our last one had to be a bit more exciting and challenging, and it certainly was.

This morning Kyle and I decided to visit a tourist site in Paris, and we chose the Catacombs. The Catacombs are underground tunnels where the French buried people, or relocated bones from graveyards in the 1700s. These are not your average mass graves however; the bones are stacked neatly with skulls forming designs between the longer bones. The exhibit was a one-mile walked through dark and damp caves with bones lining the walls. It was a very very creepy experience and we were thrilled to be back in the sunlight amongst the living at the end.

Afterwards we headed to Bois de Bologne, the major "woods"/park of Paris. We knew that the French Open was taking place near there, and had read online that you could buy tickets for only 10 euros for the night sessions. After wandering around the neighborhood for a half-hour, we finally found the stadium and joined the long line of others waiting for the ticket counters to open. About fifteen minutes before five, a staff member handed us a paper with the ticket choices and prices; we could either buy tickets for the stadium court, Suzanne Lenglen, Court #1, or a grounds pass. The line for the grounds pass was moving much quicker, and it only cost 10 euros, so Kyle and I picked that one. We also knew it was the first round, so good players would be on all courts. We got onto the grounds around 5:30 and started wandering around the courts. We saw a line at Court 2 and joined it, then discovered Max Myrni and Lleyton Hewitt. We watched the end of their match, then anxiously awaited the next pairing on the court. To our great surprise, James Blake was up next and we had an excellent view of the beginning of his match. We got hungry a few games in and headed to the snack bar to get some dinner. While eating our sandwiches and watching Rafael Nadal on the stadium court, two nice men approached us and asked if we wanted tickets for the Nadal match. We were thrilled and wound up with fantastic seats for the last two sets of the match. The Blake match still wasn't over by the end of the Nadal match, so we went back to Court 2 and saw Blake lose sadly in a fourth set. The match was great though, and the overall experience was amazing.