Just as surely as I know that I'll see French people carrying around baguettes as accessories, when I set out to see the sites in Paris, I know that I will end up in places that I could not have predicted. Take this past Saturday. I started out at the Louvre. After that, I had every intention of scoping out the Paris Plage (a temporary beach set up along the Seine). I somehow missed the Plage all together and wound up at the Paris Sewage Museum. I know, it sounds ridiculous but here is what happened-

After walking for what seemed like miles, and experiencing what felt like severe dehydration, I came upon what I thought was an information booth. It wasn't. It was a ticket booth for the Paris Sewage museum. I had heard about the underground "catacombes" in Paris, and thought maybe "sewers" was a rough translation. I decided to check it out. Turns out I was wrong about the catacombes: this was a museum dedicated solely to the wonders of sewage drainage.

I only lasted at this underground museum about 10 minutes. The smell was horrible, likely due to the filthy waste water rushing by beneath our feet. On the plus side, I did learn a little about the innovative nature of the system- how it was the first of its kind in the world. Napoleon spearheaded an overhaul of the Paris sewer system in the early 19th century. Then, under Baron Haussmann in the mid-19th century, it became the first of its kind to bring fresh water into the city for drinking while flushing out the not-so-fresh water via separate channels. Plus, the underground tunnel system allows the entire system to be accessible, which was good for fixes as well as for tourism, even back then.