Dunkirk Beach. The very same one where 340,000 soldiers were evacuated in 1940.

I saw a 4-star hotel under construction. The locals said that after the movie "Dunkirk" there was a noticeable increase in tourists.

They're selling Borodinsky bread in France!

Sometimes you've gotta do work at height (with safety gear). What else can you do :)

Alright, I was just joking about the toilet. Everything's fine here.

The ship itself is a replica of a Petrine frigate from 1703. The previous photo shows what the facilities looked like 300 years ago. That's where the sailors of those days would do their business.

And this is the toilet :)

Hooray! I signed all the paperwork.

Now I'm a full-fledged sailor. Life aboard ship looks something like this:

Woohoo! Made it to Dunkirk. The ship behind me is my home for the next 4 days and my ride to Amsterdam.

Actually, I didn't go to France for Paris at all. I absolutely had to get to Dunkirk.

On the way, I stopped in Amiens. It seems like an inconspicuous city that nobody really talks about. But dig a little deeper and suddenly you find out that there's a huge Gothic cathedral from the 13th century, Jules Verne spent the last 15-20 years of his life here, a pivotal moment of World War I unfolded near the city, and the Battle of the Somme was one of the most massive and bloody battles in human history.

The skyscraper visible from the train was the tallest building in Europe for 3 years.

Moving on.

Since I've already started talking about burials, do you remember when I wrote about Kazakh cemeteries? Now take a look at French ones!

The crypts are so large they actually look like tiny houses. Each one is more interesting than the last. And this is a completely real, active cemetery.

A rural Kazakh cemetery. It looks very unusual. They literally build entire crypts here. In recent years, people seem to have become a bit more relaxed about it. The city cemetery is also a bit simpler, but the idea is roughly the same.

I think I'll write about the catacombs. I stood in line for two hours (!) just to get in. Even though I got there before they opened. I'd checked out of my hostel that morning and was already carrying a hiking backpack. Of course, at the entrance they told me there's no way I can bring such a large bag inside, and since they don't have a coat check, they wouldn't let me in. You can buy tickets online, but everything was sold out for the next two days, and I waited too long to book. Plus, on their official website they cost twice as much as at the ticket window o.O

The thought of standing in that line again wasn't appealing. Fortunately, I managed to negotiate with the security guard that if I quickly found somewhere to stash my backpack, they'd let me back in without waiting.

A waiter from a nearby café kindly agreed to watch my things if I bought something from them later (their French onion soup was really excellent :) )

The catacombs themselves are former quarries. But in the 19th century, remains from cemeteries inside the city walls were reburied here to improve sanitary conditions in the city. 6 million skeletons (!)

It's worth hurrying. Groundwater sometimes reaches the level of the tunnels and even slightly floods the passages. The entire system is at risk.

Everything would be great, but no matter where you go — there are crazy lines everywhere. Some places let you buy tickets online right on the spot (and the museum even provides free Wi-Fi for it), others allow it but only if you book several days in advance and it costs way more (sometimes double the price), and some places don't offer online tickets at all.

City passes could save the situation, but they don't work everywhere either. Plus, you need to calculate whether they actually pay for themselves or not.

I'm scared to think what happens here during peak season.

Oh no! Street cleaning machines are washing the asphalt in the rain not just in Moscow! Oh no! 🙈🙈🙈

Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris are everywhere. They're literally on every corner. A whole hundred for the city. Only Tokyo and Osaka in Japan have more.

By the way, a Michelin star doesn't mean crazy high prices. There are plenty of places where you can eat for just slightly more than a regular decent restaurant. But you need to book your table in advance: there are tons of people who want to eat well and cheap, so if you just walk in, there won't be any tables available.

Although even Michelin doesn't guarantee that the food will definitely be unforgettable. Actually, you can see this pretty clearly from Google reviews.

And here's another interesting quirk: the opening hours usually look something like this: open from 12 to 2 pm and from 7 to 10 pm. Closed the rest of the time.

Notre-Dame is fenced off on all sides after the fire. You can't even get close. On the official website there's just a message saying "sorry, we're closed, we'll let you know when we reopen". But there are still plenty of tourists hanging around.

For just 89€ you can take a little drive around central Paris in a Ferrari (you're behind the wheel). A photo session is included in the price :)

For the broke folks, you can just take some photos for 30€. Surprisingly, people actually buy this service too o.O

Paris is literally covered in scooters and bikes from Uber and other companies. These things are clearly in high demand. No matter where you go, you're bound to run into one.

The city has a lot of dedicated bike lanes with their own traffic lights so pedestrians can cross safely. But for some reason, cyclists just ignore the signals, so even when you cross on green, it's better to let them pass. I almost saw a couple of accidents. We barely managed to avoid each other at the last second.

Climbed the Eiffel Tower and tried experimenting with a time-lapse. Didn't turn out great though: they've got this spotlight rotating in circles up there. That caused all sorts of artifacts to show up in the final image. And to top it off, my battery died by the end (