Around the Natural History museum were dozens of kids riding skateboards and drinking beer. Drinking in public is permitted in Paris, however it is frowned upon as being “lower class” — if you can afford to drink on a patio, you do.

Much like a lighthouse, two bright spotlights spin at the top of the tower. Upon closer inspection, I learned that it isn’t just a pair of spinning lights, but a series that are mounted along the circumference of the top. The lights hand-off to each other to emulate a spinning light.

Waiting for the boat tour of the Sienne to begin

It’s no wonder Paris is called the City of Light. In the evening, it’s remarkably beautiful. The next and final night of our trip was spent cruising the Seine and listening to a tour guide’s poor translation into English of what we were seeing. After the boat turned around and hugged the opposite side of the river, the guide failed to switch “on the left” to “on the right” and many of the tourists craned their necks in vain to see monuments that were on other side.

The Paris QTVR Portfolio:

• La Tour Eiffel, Paris
• Napoleon’s Apartments, the Louvre, Paris
• The Catacombs, Paris
• Gare Du Nord, Paris, France
• Saint Eustache, Paris
• Notre Dame Cathedral by Night
• Musee De La Poupee, Paris, France
• Paris at Night

The museum is nestled at the end of an alleyway that also plays host to a small restaurant. Only in Paris can you find yourself at a dead end street and find a perfectly good place to eat — and in this case, browse dolls that date back to the early 1800′s.

The last Renaissance fountain in Paris, nearby

We got the impression that the curator of the museum is it’s sole proprietor. She took our tickets, warned that photography was not permitted, then returned to the patio outside to have lunch with her husband.

The dolls were remarkable. It was evident that through the late 1800′s there was an attempt to make them more and more realistic. The “technology” existed by the 1870′s that permitted the eyes to close, and you could see the doll makers dabbled in even more realistic features such as teeth. Unfortunately, the widely spaced teeth in half-open mouths gave the dolls a very creepy aura. Similarly, one ceramic doll head was acquired that had been smashed open, and was displayed as such.

The Paris QTVR Portfolio:

• La Tour Eiffel, Paris
• Napoleon’s Apartments, the Louvre, Paris
• The Catacombs, Paris
• Gare Du Nord, Paris, France
• Saint Eustache, Paris
• Notre Dame Cathedral by Night
• Musee De La Poupee, Paris, France
• Paris at Night

At night, Notre Dame is a whole different scene. You can see here a ramp set up outside the cathedral. Kids on rollerblades were jumping over bars held up by flaming sticks. Hundreds of people gathered to watch the spectacle as they soared 20 feet into the air, only to land just as gracefully as they launched.

The bell tower of Notre Dame by day

This panoramic photograph was taken with a lengthy exposure to highlight the cathedral and the people in the square. While many walked past the camera during the long exposure time, only those that stopped actually showed up on digital film, so the square seems strangely empty except for the exhibitionists on wheels.

A short distance away along the Seine, other kids are gathered. Their drinking, singing and dancing can be easily heard from the streets that follow the river.

The Paris QTVR Portfolio:

• La Tour Eiffel, Paris
• Napoleon’s Apartments, the Louvre, Paris
• The Catacombs, Paris
• Gare Du Nord, Paris, France
• Saint Eustache, Paris
• Notre Dame Cathedral by Night
• Musee De La Poupee, Paris, France
• Paris at Night

Outside Eglise Ste Eustache

Ste.Eustache was modeled on Notre Dame and built between 1532 and 1637. Moliere’s funeral was held at the church in 1673 and it was the first church to contain the tombs of some of Paris’ most influential people of the day (Louis XIV’s finance minister). Despite the dust topped arches and sculptures inside, the grand organ inside has been restored and the church’s current organist plays a free concert each Sunday at 5:30pm.

What also makes this cathedral worth visiting is its sculpture display at its entrance. 15 foot tall thin golden figures appear frozen in play near the doors of the church while a giant rock man seems stuck in the earth, looking away from Ste. Eustache.

We had been in the neighbourhood the night before, enjoying a late dinner on the patio of an Italian restaurant on a pedestrian walkway nearby. From this vantage point you can also see the gardens of Les Forums Des Halles.

The Paris QTVR Portfolio:

• La Tour Eiffel, Paris
• Napoleon’s Apartments, the Louvre, Paris
• The Catacombs, Paris
• Gare Du Nord, Paris, France
• Saint Eustache, Paris
• Notre Dame Cathedral by Night
• Musee De La Poupee, Paris, France
• Paris at Night

Thispart of town isn’t as swanky as most of Paris. In addition to being the only area in which we saw the park benches occupied by bums, it was the only part of town in which I saw electronics and adult video stores.

Paultells me that this was not always the case. In the early 1900′s, this was a very popular neighbourhood among Paris’ upper middle class. The Gare du Nord train station was the big draw. In the day, few but the wealthy could afford to regularly take a train, and those who did moved into the neighbourhood for the convenience of easy access to the rail line.

The apartment spans virtually the entire fourth floor of the building, and would have likely been home to a wealthy factory supervisor. At one time, servants would have lived on the fifth floor. The top floor, in contrast to today, was considered the least desirable floor due to the fact that heat rises and air conditioners hadn’t been brought to France by until the late 1920′s by Willis Haviland Carrier. It’s rarely too hot in Paris, and with the noticeable lack of bugs, Parisians leave their floor to ceiling windows wide open to let the cool breeze in. Carrier never really made it big in France, it seems.

Paul fed Ann and me a lovely dinner of what was believed to be beef tenderloin, but turned out to be pork. That’s the problem with just recently becoming fluent in French: someone waves some meat at you and mumbles, and you just shrug and reply, “oui” and next thing you know you’ve got pork.

The Paris QTVR Portfolio:

• La Tour Eiffel, Paris
• Napoleon’s Apartments, the Louvre, Paris
• The Catacombs, Paris
• Gare Du Nord, Paris, France
• Saint Eustache, Paris
• Notre Dame Cathedral by Night
• Musee De La Poupee, Paris, France
• Paris at Night

Alsoat this time, people’s cries about the unsanitary conditions of the local cemeteries and the lack of new land hit a peak. Louis the XVI’s committee had the brilliant idea: fill the catacombs of Paris with the bones from the cemeteries.

Six million bodies were dug up and carted to the catacombs and stacked — by order of body part, not individual — within the 2,100 acres of tunnels and caves. By some reports, many of the bodies hadn’t finished decomposing and had to be stripped of their flesh.

Stop! Here is the Empire of the Dead

A sign was erected above one of the main tunnel entrances, reading “Stop! Here is the Empire of the Dead” and the French Resistance used the catacombs to travel throughout Paris and avoid detection by the Nazis. They could use only the most secret passages because the German army was aware of the existence of the massive network of tunnels. Before that, smugglers used the tunnels to evade taxes and police. Today, only a very small portion of the network is accessible, and even then it takes about a half hour before you reach the sign warning you of what awaits.

"Headstones" mark the original cemeteries

What you’re seeing here is a section of bones stacked about 5 feet high that go back about 100 feet. In this shot alone, there are about 15,000 square feet of bones. If you zoom in on some of the skulls, you can see that, mysteriously, there are holes in foreheads — murder perhaps?

The Paris QTVR Portfolio:

• La Tour Eiffel, Paris
• Napoleon’s Apartments, the Louvre, Paris
• The Catacombs, Paris
• Gare Du Nord, Paris, France
• Saint Eustache, Paris
• Notre Dame Cathedral by Night
• Musee De La Poupee, Paris, France
• Paris at Night