2:15 PM - now, I've been to lots of war museums - lots of them. Not the Canadian one yet in Ottawa, though I'm dying to go someday. Hit some good ones in Washington, etc. etc. But to say you've been to the biggest in the world is always fun - and to visit probably the best one in the world is even more fun.
2:25 PM - took a few minutes (and I really mean just a few) to tour the "Historical Charles de Gaulle" museum, which was dedicated last year by President Nicolas Sarkozy in memory of the leader of Free France during the war with Hitler. Most of France was occupied by the Nazis, but of course De Gaulle led the part of the country that was not occupied - I won't get into the reasons why all of France wasn't overtaken by Hitler, but it is complicated to say the least.
While de Gaulle in the minds of most French is considered a great hero, I personally don't get it - and the museum was as dull as Sasquatch's razor blades. They gave you an audioguide to listen to, and every time you stepped in a certain zone, it would start up. However, if you overstepped, it would also shut down, or it would say "sorry, this isn't translated into English yet". Ho hum, next! Spent 10 frustrating minutes in there listening to drivel about how he liberated his country (um, what?) and then left.
2:35 PM - I then took a moment to tour the Musée de l'Armée, which I thought would have tanks, airplanes, um....even guns that weren't from the 1700s would have been nice. It was a dreadfully boring exhibit filled with about 2 city blocks of old army uniforms and guns/swords from the 1600-1900s (when France still had some reason to boast). Honestly, I was about to leave the museum altogether, when I turned a corner and fell into an exhibit on the French Revolution. I thought - ooh, guillotines and other fun stuff. Um, no. More uniforms and guns. Sigh. The only thing that was remotely of interest was one of Emperor Napoleon's outfits from 1799 (see picture right, click for larger). It was stuck in a display with other stuff, like his hand-me-downs wouldn't get a bit more respect than say, a French drummer's socks from the American Revolution did.2:50 PM - at this point I was thinking - is that it? What a crappy place. Like their history of warfare ended in 1900, which obviously isn't true. Where's the rest of it?
Well, was actually heading for the main exit, when I spotted a tiny little sign that said something about World War I and II Museum - and then I got very interested again. And I wasn't disappointed - in fact, it was by far the best museum I've ever been to in my life, and I've been to the Smithsonian, the National Archives, the Prado in Madrid, etc. but this was simply the best - ever. If you go to Paris, see Napoleon's Tomb and head right to the World War museum, unless you have an extra hour (and brain cells) to kill.
They first start with World War I, and you are on the second floor of the building as you start. For the next hour I was mesmerized with the stuff they had, telling a complete chronological story from the start of World War I, all the way to victory over Japan - with a truly explosive ending.
I admit, World War I wasn't really of much interest to me, as it focused mostly on France, and I honestly have no idea who any of the people were that they were talking about. It seems to me that Britain, Canada and the US, with a few others thrown in as support, actually won the war for the Allies, as they did in World War II. However, many of the battles were in France, so I suppose they had a legitimate right to brag about their war efforts in this museum. The coolest thing, I think, was the German Kaiser's (almost like their King at the time) helmet on display (see picture left, click for larger), made out of solid silver. I hate to say it, but whether you are talking about Hitler or Darth Vader, the bad guys always have the best outfits for some reason.I skipped the rest of World War I - I knew how it turned out anyway - though had it turned out better for the Germans, we wouldn't have had World War II (not that victims are given permission to turn into criminals).
2:57 PM - Started at the World War II museum (which kind of continued right after World War I, but you had to first go up a set of stairs one floor). My head started spinning with all the amazing stuff on display right off the bat - for the next hour I actually used up a set of batteries with all the camera flashes I had (but had spares).At the very start of the museum, they were talking about the rise of Hitler - and they "started off with a bang" (remember that phrase, I'll use it later again!) and showed off one of his uniforms the minute you walk in (see picture left, click for larger). Now that's an intro. I was hooked. First impression - this guy was really short. Like Napoleon short. Guess if you're small, you need to carry a big stick to get noticed.
They had a bunch of stuff from Hitler's house - diplomas from his walls, dishes from his kitchen, medals from his bedroom, etc. and that was all cool, but I can't show it all here for brevity - I'll show pictures when I see you! However, I was excited to see a real Enigma machine (see picture right, click for larger).Germany used these amazing machines to create top secret codes that the Allies could not crack - and they got very cocky and broadcast all their operations on it eventually, believing it was impossible to crack. Sorry folks, the movie U-571 with Mathew McConaughey, about Americans capturing a German sub and getting an Enigma, was fiction. To Hollywood's credit, however, it was based on the true story of the HMS Bulldog, a British boat. And this was the Enigma machine they captured.
This museum had it's share of guns and uniforms too, from every country - Allies and Axis, which was pretty interesting for me. In the case of the Germans, they showed every type of uniform, from the Afrikakorp khaki shorts used in the desert to the parkas of Stalingrad - all disturbingly collected from dead soldiers.
They had a big display on D-Day of course, as it affected France directly - everything from jeeps to bombs to saboteur's trick weapons (like grenades inside dead rats, etc.). Very interesting stuff. They then showed some treasures they gained after Germany collapsed, like the personal military flag of Hermann Goering (head of the German Luftwaffe airforce) - captured in the liberated Paris in 1944. They sure had a flare for the dramatic.Lots of stuff on display re: the Battle of Paris and it's liberation on August 25, 1944. To this day, Parisians celebrate that date as a local stat holiday. But of course, the war wasn't over even when Hitler committed suicide the next May, and the Germans surrendered days later. Japan was still a huge threat. Until a guy named Einstein started talking about nuclear fission, and everything changed.
The biggest surprise of all, to end the museum's tour with an even bigger bang that it's beginning - was an authentic, unfinished atomic bomb, from the facility as the ones developed and used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (see picture right, click for larger). They were prepared to finish more for Tokyo and/or other Japanese cities if needed, and this was one of those unfinished casings. This may sound terrible, but honestly, how many guys would not want to say they got to touch a (potential) atomic bomb with their bare hands. I'd say it was a history addict's come true, but I am not brave enough to even wish for something like that.
3:55 PM - I left the museum and the Les Invalides altogether, and was kind of floating down the street, still not believing what I saw. About a block ahead, I saw something beautiful - a bridge called Pont Alexandre III, which had four huge statues on the four corners of the bridge, in gold (see example left, click for larger)! And there were all kinds of ornate statues adorning the bridge itself. Talk about dramatic - this city really knows how to put on a show with it's buildings and sculptures, and the storm clouds gathering at 4:00 PM made it look even more amazing! And this was just found on a bridge no less!Grande finale for the afternoon - as I was leaving the bridge, I encountered something I've not seen before - 8 police vans going by me with sirens and lights blaring and blazing - full of heavily-armed gendarmes nationale (French for national police, like the RCMP in Canada). Not sure where they were going, but they were in a hurry to get there. At first I thought the President was with them or something, but they were not escorting anyone around - yet. I couldn't believe how many sets of police lights were in a row. It was kind of beautiful in a way, and a bit unnerving. (see video below, click for larger). It's only a few seconds long, so you may need to play a few times to see how many there were:
The weather starting to get really ugly, and I was tired, so I decided just to head back to the hotel and relax for the evening. I grabbed some new snacks from the food store in the mall (didn't even feel like going out for supper - I think the combined efforts of the Congress and wandering the streets for days is doing me in!).
Stayed back at the hotel to get my blog updated and watch some TV. I then spent about an hour in the early evening going over what I still wanted to see in Paris, and planned out the order and all the stations, etc. I'd need. Then I hit the sack by 10 PM - I have a huge day of touring on Friday all planned out. Good night!
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