July 2011

You’ve seen the places we Socks have been – all above ground, which would be natural, right? Who likes to go underground? Not us!

But Stacy Lyn took us to the Catacombs of Paris, and we were obligated to decend into the world of the underground where the remains of countless citizens lay in the afterlife. Creepy, huh?

See, the problem is that there is a limited amount of burial space in France. So, after a certain length of time, or if a grave has been abandoned and unclaimed by a family for so long, the remains are disinterred and placed in an ossuary. For many years, those remains were brought to the tunnels of underground Paris – the Catacombs.

Throughout the tunnels, words of wisdom are etched into stone placards:

“If you have sometimes seen a man die, always consider that the same fate awaits you.” (So prophetic, yet who ever really wants to think about things like that? Though, being Socks, we can’t help it and we, like Edna St. Vincent Millay, are not resigned to this fate!)

Come – follow our decent into the world of Les Morts. And remember the words of caution on the lintel of the entrance:

“Stop! Here is the empire of death.” (We should not be subjected to this – either this vulgar display of our fate or the fate itself!)

Stacy Lyn took photos of all of the placards with their creepy admonitions about death. For some reason, she was fascinated by the words more than the bones!