Greetings from Paris, Catacombs and a Greek tragedy

It has been disgustingly long time since I have posted. The fault is that I have had the last exams and essays to return (well, who hasn't in the spring?) I have also been on a holiday in Paris and I have moved to a different city, at least for the summer! So you can imagine that it has been a very busy month!

Here are some photos (taken with a phone so I apologize the poor quality!) from the Catacombs of Paris and a few pics of the National Opera of Paris, where I went to see a ballet Orphée et Eurydice at the Palais Garnier. I went there an hour before the start of the ballet because then the tickets are cheap. Of coarse the tickets that are available at that hour are the crappiest places, where you can see only 50% of the stage IF you are LUCKY. It was still worth the 10 euro fee, the music and the singers were awesome, the whole set design and costumes were simple and modern and the dance was amazing (at least the parts that I saw ;) ).

If you can't remember at the moment, the story of Orpheus and Eurydice is a tragedy in which the two main characters fall in love but the lady dies. Orpheus travels to hell to retrieve his love. He has the ability to play music so beautifully that the ruler of Hell promises that Orpheus may take his love but Eurydice must walk behind him and Orpheus is not allowed to look back to make sure she really is following. Otherwise she will be damned to hell for eternity. Well, Orpheus is unable to resist the need of a little peek and loses Eurydice for all eternity. He wonders the land in grief and in the end a gang of Maenads (female followers of Dionysus, basically ravers of the Antiquity) bump into Orpheus and the ladies tear him into pieces.

When I visited all those art museums in Paris, I got this feeling that the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice is or was really important to the French because there were about hundred paintings of this legend in the Louvre alone. Mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries but I am not sure if I remember correctly.

The catacombs were worth the waiting. You have to wait in line at least one hour to get there but the catacombs are extremely fascinating!

'Stop! Here lies the empire of death'

I did not take selfies during my holiday except this one because two American tourists provoked me too to take 'a selfie with a dead person!' :D What a lovely macabre sense of humor they had!

Next time something about art: Grotesque paintings of horses!