In addition to the usual Parisian museums (Louvre, d'Orsay, Centre Pompidou) , I also went to the sewer museum, Musee des Egouts, based on a friend's recommendation. As expected, the museum was down in the actual sewers. It wasn't too stinky and strangely enough, there were actually areas that smelled pleasantly of fabric softener. I tried to follow one of the guided tours, but it was all in French so I opted to just read the English information plaques throughout the museum.Some things I learned about the Paris sewers:
*There is a very extensive network of 2100km (over 1300 miles) of tunnels, with mains for drinking and non-drinking water, telecommunication cables, and pneumatic tubes.
* The city of lights has a population of about 1.2 million. 1.2 million cubic meters (317,006 gallons) of wastewater have to be collected daily and every year, 15,000 cubic meters (approx. 400 gallons) of solid waste removed and disposed of.
*It wasn't until about 1935 that industrial sewage treatment began. Before that sewage was drained into sewage fields where it was naturally cleaned and filtered before draining back into the Seine river. Ew.
*They use these huge balls to clean out the sewer channels: the balls are propelled by the water and push the debris and sediment along. There are also these big dredging boats that serve a similar function.
There was a tiny little gift shop at the end of the tour. Of course, two elementary school groups had just finished before me and were mobbing the poor gift shop guy as they tried to get their hands on pens and these cute little stuffed rat key chains. I fought my way through the hoards of small French children and got my hands on one of each too.
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