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.

Brooms and garbage bags? Those days are gone. Street vacuums are all the rage now. Give it a few more years and they'll probably teach the machines to clean the streets on their own.

PS. It's 20 degrees out. And this guy, along with tons of other people, are walking around in warm sweaters and raincoats. I don't even do that when it's 10 degrees. Did they get so cold after those summer 40-degree days that they're already freezing?

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 (

It looks like you need to watch out for pickpockets in Paris.

You see signs like these in museums. Every metro station plays voice warnings asking people to watch their pockets.

C'est la vie.

The Louvre is just gigantic. You could spend a week there and still not see everything. But they really make an unhealthy fuss over the Mona Lisa.

The main (but not only) entrance is a huge queue from level -1 up to floor 2 to see the portrait! Though it does move pretty fast. All the signs along the way only point to the painting. You get the impression there's nothing else in the Louvre at all.

They let you get pretty close, but only in small groups. Time is very limited and museum staff basically rush people out when their group's time is up. It's funny, but almost no one even tries to actually look at the work. Everyone just takes 100500 selfies for memory and leaves.

The first thing you see after leaving the Mona Lisa room is a sign pointing to the exit :)

PS. This might be because they temporarily moved the Mona Lisa to a different room upstairs due to renovations.

Paris subway stations have statues right on the platforms. There are even museum exhibits behind glass. How do you like that, Elon? :)

PS. Of course, not all stations have them, but the metro is really quite nice. Though the trains are noticeably shorter than Moscow's.

There's a station called Stalingrad in the metro (!!)

It's not enough just to get to Charles de Gaulle. You still have to get out of it :)

Right on this weekend, they closed the railway for maintenance. Instead of trains, they sent free (!) buses. So I saved money here too. I'm liking everything so far :)

UPD: people are telling me it's actually a strike, not maintenance. I wasn't paying attention to the announcements.

Fun fact: you don't actually need to go to France to see Paris (:

PS. My layover in Frankfurt ended up being way longer than expected. First, they changed my ticket to a slightly later flight (for free). Then it turned out there was overbooking and they were looking for volunteers willing to hang around the airport for a couple more hours in exchange for a small bonus. Since things weren't going according to plan anyway, I figured what's a couple more hours. Third time's the charm—everything worked out!

I was going to write a nice post about how I'd already made it to Paris while you were sleeping, but something went wrong along the way :)

Booking a flight with only a 50-minute connection during morning rush hour in Frankfurt, plus going through border control, was way too optimistic. The plane from Moscow even arrived ahead of schedule. But the border check and security screening for the connection took way longer than expected. I ended up at the gate about 20 minutes after takeoff.

I was really surprised that airport staff just ignore any requests to speed up the security process, even when you show them your boarding pass for a closing gate. It's like, "Just show up on time and wait like everyone else."

Lufthansa treats the situation like a natural disaster—something you can't prevent, but you can deal with the aftermath: they just rebook you on a later flight. I'm number 111 in the rebooking queue. They're currently serving number 84. Looks like I've got another couple hours to wait 🙈

Brutal roaming from T-Mobile. The internet apparently costs all the money in the world. Guess I'll just pull out the SIM card.

I'm back in Moscow (the real one now). Something's off at Sheremetyevo – they just can't seem to get their act together with baggage. I waited over half an hour just for my bag to start coming out.

And then I saw a huge pile of unclaimed luggage. Guess people ran out of patience waiting.