11:45 AM - Decided to wait for awhile as it was raining out pretty heavy this morning. Worked on my blog until about 11:30, and then made my way to the RER C Train, to the Invalides station. Because of the big focus on the start of World War II this week in France, I looked up the website for Musée de l'Armée in Paris, the national War Museum, and decided to give it a try once I saw what was actually there. You'll see soon why.
12:30 PM - It was a grey day, with a bit of sprinkling rain, when I exited the Invalides station - which seemed to be nicer and cleaner than some of the others I've seen (the Metro lines are absolutely horrible). It's several blocks walking down the street from the station, with nothing between the station and my destination but a huge park. Off to the right, I could easily see the Eiffel Tower in the gloom.
Two blocks down the street, I looked to my left and....there was a Canadian flag flying from the front of a building (see picture right, click for larger). Something called the "Canadian Cultural Centre". I was so excited I went in to see what it was - I knew it wasn't an Embassy, but thought maybe it was a place where Canadians can meet each other when they are in Paris. Young guy at the desk was happy to see a fellow Canadian (he was from Ottawa). Found out it's an outreach of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, to promote Canadian culture in France! Everything from visual and performing arts, writing and screen arts, academics, etc. Kind of cool - thanked the guy on duty and continued on.
12:41 PM - I walked for a few blocks to the entrance to the Musée de l'Armée, housed in the a series of originally named Hôpital Les Invalides (see picture right, click for larger) - or in English, Hospital for Disabled Persons. Today, it's just called Les Invalides. It was commissioned by Louis IV (the Sun King of Versailles).Can you imagine being admitted to a hospital where they call you a cripple on purpose? That's encouraging. Have to admit, if I was sick and they admitted me to this place, however, I would take that as a compliment - the gold-plated gates are a bit of a nice touch! That Louis IV sure knew how to whip up a nice building.
As I got inside, however, I had to laugh at the irony - this was probably the least handicapped accessible place I've been to in Paris so far. It was originally a hospital and retirement home for French war veterans many years ago too. What a great idea, I'm sure they thought - let's encourage our war wounded by calling them cripples, and then making sure that they can't ever get walk out of here again.
Les Invalides (see picture left, click for larger) houses the Musée de l'Armée, the military museum of the Army of France, and the largest military museum in the world: the Musée des Plans-Reliefs (Museum of Architectural Models); and the Musée d'Histoire Contemporaine (Museum of Contemporary History) - which has recently been replaced in 2008 by a museum dedicated to President Charles de Gaulle, and dedicated by the current one, Nicolas Sarkozy. The old lady that took this picture was nice, but a bit 'les invalides' herself with a shaky hand - took a few tries to get one that wasn't moving (when I was standing perfectly still).
After the original building was finished, the King decided they needed a church - so they also built Eglise Saint-Louis des Invalides, or Church of St. Louis of the Cripples in English (I know, weak translation). Today, this beautiful gold-topped church (see picture right, click for larger) is the burial site of the greatest war heroes of France. Notice, the King called himself a saint, and forced all patients to attend daily mass (even if they were Protestant).
The outside of the building was incredibly huge, but in need of repair, and the inner court was stunning when you first saw it (see picture left, click for larger), but half of one side was under tarps and scaffolding, which wasn't that attractive. Right in front of you when you walk in was the entrance to the church, with a big clock that had a deafening bong every 1/2 hour. It was really neat at first, and got some video to capture soon. After about 3 hours, however, I was ready to tear it off the wall - you could hear it everywhere. I don't know how patients were able to sleep through the night. And the courtyard was reaaaally empty - I thought they should throw some patio furniture around or something. Maybe a firepit in one corner, little palm trees....no?1:02 PM - after going all the way through the building to the far end, where the ticket booth was (not that well planned) out, and paying 8€ for a pass that took me everywhere on the grounds (which I thought was reasonable), I headed off to my first stop, the Eglise Saint-Louis des Invalides. Outside is pretty dramatic - but wait until you see inside!
Along the way, they had a photo exhibit outside in the walkways, with some never-before-seen photos (so they said, but I'm sure I've seen some of them before) showing the Nazi invasion of Poland on September 1 and the aftermath, on its 70th anniversary. I was impressed with a museum that had a theme and a calendar - that's not as common as you might think.
In this photo (see picture right, click for larger), Germans in the city of Gdansk, Poland came out to cheer on their 'liberating' German army as it drove through the city September 3, 1939 (70 years ago today). As mentioned this morning, today is the day France declared war on Germany on the date of that photo. Those guys sure knew how to stage an event - they invaded two days before the place was just plastered with swastikas already!
1:10 PM - walked into the church, and was stunned by how beautiful it was. I seemed to have about 3 or four little mini chapels on the four corners of the main open space, each that you had to walk up several steps to see - and each had a tomb the middle of it. One of them said "Napoleon Joseph" (see picture left, click for larger) and I thought, "holy cow, it's Napoleon's tomb". So I was taking photo after photo after photo from every angle. I was pretty impressed that I got to see it.Except I didn't - a guy beside me said this was the son of the Emperor Napoleon. What a let down - who cares about that? Pretty fancy for second rate though! But I have to admit, I was really disappointed. I thought for sure they said the Napoleon was buried here.
I went to each of the four tombs, and this one by far was the most dramatic and beautiful - eight soldiers carrying the body of General Ferdinand Foch (see picture right, click for larger), who is actually inside the coffin on their shoulders! Foch was Supreme Commander of the Allied troops in World War I against the Germans (like Eisenhower was in World War II) and personally accepted the German surrender on November 11, 1918 (of course, our Remembrance Day today celebrates that event). He was considered until 1939 the greatest war hero France ever produced, and after his death, statues of him went up in Poland, England and several other Allied countries, and streets today are named after him as far away as Ecuador and Louisiana. It's widely believed that were it not for military genius, the Allies would certainly have lost World War I.
I was suitably impressed with the place - the French certainly have an air for the dramatic. It had a beautiful painted ceiling (see picture left, click for larger) and a huge altar inside (see picture left, click for larger), which is original from the days of Louis IV, who would sometimes attend service here (see picture right, click for larger). But I was about to learn the coolest thing, for a history freak like me, was still to come. In the middle of the room, which I hadn't really gone all the way down to see, there was a big hole in the floor, and I saw people looking down there. Finally my curiosity got to me (you couldn't see what was down there from anywhere else - you had to look over the edge yourself).
The tomb of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (see picture left, click for larger)- the real thing! He's rotting away in there as we speak - how cool. I was like a little kid - it was much more dramatic than anything I've ever seen equivalent before - whether the eternal flame at President John F Kennedy's grave or President Taft's grave, both at Arlington National Cemetery. I cringed when I saw kids playing on Paul Revere's grave in Boston. I mean, kings don't always get this kind of special treatment - but then, he set himself up as a divine ruler. The French loved and even worshipped him, and still do to this day.2:00 PM - Well that was neat, and I headed out to see more. However, when I got around to the front entrance of the church (in the courtyard) - it dawned on me that I hadn't seen people go out a back door, maybe there was more to this church to see.
And indeed there was (see picture right, click for larger). Not a huge place by any means, but a very nice the actual chapel that the patients would go to. The other was specifically designed to house Napoleon's grave after he died, and the other tombs were added after the fact.Stay tuned, the best is yet to come today (I think).
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