Two more weeks of Europe

Being at home is one of the best things there is. Especially after being away for so long.

Here you see my parents house where I grew up most of my life. We had a fantastic week together before I headed of to other adventures.

In the week I was home I paid many visits to friends. One of them was to my brother Luc and his girlfriend Nina. Here we are playing Carcassonne, one of my most loved games. The night before we had good times in Eindhoven, drinking and dancing.

Another 'sister' of mine, Renske, showed me Den Bosch by bike. It had been a long time sins I hoped on a bike, and I must admit that it felt so good to peddle again. I truly miss that.
At my former Primary school, where my mum still takes care of the kids during lunch brake, I helped out tapping some beer. It was the last day of school and all the parents were invited. It had also been a long time sins I had poored some beer. I still love it.


Then I left my parents house and hitched to Maastricht to have two pots of tea with Nienke. Time litterly flew while talking about eachothers life and boyfriends, so that when the tea finally hit the bladder we were surprised to find out I had to leave.


Nienke brought me to my next friend, Emily. She had just finished school and we ate cake and visited some of her friends from school. I don't think I've ever eten such good brownies, and that while I do not like chocolate!




On my way to Paris by thum.
It took me longer then planned, so when I arrived everything was already set up for the big party. Zeph comes from a family with 8 kids and now and again the house gets emptied out to have a party. Two times a year their parents leave everything behind and the kids (only one of them is still living in the elderly house, the rest just invades like in old days) know exactly what to do and where to begin.

Absolutely everything gets moved, there is cloth infront of the windows so nobody on the street can see and the paintings are being moved to higher grounds.
But then the party goes loose. Everyone brings a bottle of liquor or wine and at the end of the night nothing is left. The house really looks like a disco with dancing in every room, smoking in every corner and kissing couples towards the end of the evening.
Deile, Amandine, Opportune and Zephirin. All brothers and sisters.

There is dancing on the bar in the kitchen.

The funniest thing ever was that in this French house, in the middle of Paris, this country of cheeses, baugette and wine, there was no bottle opener. So through out the whole party people had to come to me so I could open all those bottles with grape juice.
I think I loved my swiss army knife more then ever.

And then there was a lot of clean-up the next day. It took up half a day of scrubbing (even the walls) and bringing garbage bags with bottles down the stairs, but when mum and dad came back everything looked as if nothing had happened.
Ofcourse they hear the stories, the funniest one being that the top neighbors had found a condom in the hallway and were very disappointed. We still wonder who is was.




Ofcourse no Paris without being Romantic at the Eiffel Tower one afternoon.

And then we finally had time to explore the Catacombes of Paris.
Zeph had spend many a tennage-night in those systems under the streets of Paris so he knew what to do and where to go. I was more excited then ever. He had been talking about it for a long time.

Entrance to the 18th century catacombs is restricted. The portion of the catacombs open to the public is only a small part of an extensive network of underground tunnels, which spans more than 300km (about 186 miles) in length. The tunnel system is complex, and though some tunnels have plaques indicating the name of the street above, it is still quite easy to get lost: some passages are extremely low or narrow and others are partially flooded. There are also aging telephone wires, pipes, etc. that can hinder progress, and cave-ins, although rare, do occasionally occur. A good guide is therefore indispensable, and even many good guides still refer to a map from time to time. Because of these potential dangers, accessing the catacombs unescorted by officials has been illegal since November 2, 1955; today, there is a €60 fine if one gets caught by the cataflics — the special police who patrol the catacombs.
However, secret entrances do exist throughout Paris and it is possible to enter the catacombs via the sewers, metro, and certain manholes. Some unofficial visitors also hold keys to certain official entrances. On rare occasions people do make use of these access points and illegally enter the catacombs — for example, to meet clandestinely, to hold unusual parties, or simply as urban explorers. (Specifically, those who have an affinity for exploring the catacombs are known as cataphiles.)

BRON Wikepedia

This is the entrance we used. In a long forgotten train tunnel above the ground. It's a pitty that these days the cataphiles are not as neat anymore. People take less care about garbage and it hard to see how they can make such a mess during parties or explorations.

Zeph is looking at the fine map he recieved from a cataphile many years ago. This map was the key for him to start the discovery of a new city, 25 meters under the ground with a consistent temperature of 11C.

Five to Six million people have been burried (a better word will be 'dumped') in many of the tombs. And it's possible to go into some of them. You litterly walk ontop of the bones and being very honest, I thought that a little disrespectful. But it's still mighty impressive to see.

Some corridors are not more then one meter, others are two and a half. Sometimes people make crawl-through ways to get to unexplored parts and sometimes you are enkel deep in water. Like on the picture above.

There are bigger rooms where the people made coffee and had their diners. Maybe they even slept there. Now they are used for brakes as well and to give parties.

The Four of us definably had an thrilling time looking at this stuff and reading the map ourselves. I would love to go more often and see what other things are there to find.

Then, as the most fabulous finish of my stay in Paris with the Taffin Family, there was a birthday dinner for one of the kids, Wandrille. So six brothers and sisters came to the table, Jean-Pol cut the meat, Benoite cut the pei and we all drank fantastic champane and wine untill we were full.

It has been a pleasure to take part of this household and I truly hope that there are more events to come. With eight kids, a super cheerful and busy mother and a dad enjoying the good things in life there is never a minute of boredom, not even when all of them brabbel French and I feel really motivated to start practising........ one day.