Day 5

Day 5! Wow how time flies! Today we began with a visit to the Rodin Museum, but made sure to stop at a Parisian cafe beforehand. We passed security and entered the museum into the warm foyer. The museum home to many famous sculptures and works by Augustine Rodin. This included The Thinker and The Kiss. The Thinker, in the garden, is just one of the several castings that Rodin made. We strolled round the gardens posing with the statues.

After seeing hundreds of sculptures, we walked across the road to Les Invalides, where Napoleon is buried. Les Invalides also included various armoury and memorabilia of the French Revolution and other wars. We all posed with our Napoleon hats and then left, bound for the Catacombs.

The Catacombs began with a seemingly endless set of spiralling stairs which placed us 19 metres underground, well below the French subway system. After a short brief from the tour guide, we walked through hallways of neatly arranged skulls and bones which we, unfortunately, weren't allowed to touch. Rain from many days ago had seeped down into the roof of the catacombs, making water from the ceiling drip down our backs. Napoleon Bonaparte was also there, but had no recollection of anything. As the old adage goes, with any great landmark there is a gift shop. The boys spent nearly an hour browsing skeleton themed merchandise.

Afterwards, we caught the metro to our next destination. The Tour Montparnasse is an office building with a 360° observation deck with wide views of Paris from every angle. It is 210m high with the observation deck on the 58th floor. After taking the elevator up to the top floor, we were surprised with breathtaking views of the Eiffel Tower, the Lourve, The Arc de Triomphe and Sacre Coeur. After Jack putting a sizeable hole in the deck's floor, we made our way to an American style restaurant for dinner and got burgers and ribs. We all tried to get a good night's sleep, as our departure time for Day 6 was 8:00

Highlights: Skulls, Free Napoleon hats, Joel Fitzgibbons (aka Napoleon), holes in the floors and ruined panorama shots.

by Jack Robinson & Josh Nunn