Day 15: Les Invalides

Sorry, it was raining today so I didn't take any pictures (yes he did, but it was using Isako's point-and-shoot camera, and the film is still in the camera...).  But we visited Les Invalides, a large complex originally built to house wounded war veterans (and in fact part of it still is a veterans' hospital today).   (Click for the history of Les Invalides.)  We visited the Army Museum (click for info), which is morbid but has an amazing array of antique canons, jousting armor, and ancient swords, pistols, and rifles, as well as more modern war-related relics that we weren't as interested in.  We visited Napoleon's tomb.  Nice, big chunk of reddish-brown granite.  Isako mused, "Now, why can't they build monuments like this to someone like Mother Theresa instead of a war hero?  I guess that's because they're too humble to be comfortable being 'on display' like this.  You gotta be somewhat narcissistic and an egotist, I guess."

But probably the most interesting thing we saw, which wasn't even mentioned in our main tour book but I had seen in another book, was the Musee de Plans Reliefs, which contains very detailed, large models of various cities and fortresses.  We had to ask directions 3 times and wandered all over the complex before we finally found the place, but it was worth the effort.  The models were built in the late 1600s, and updated in the 1800s, for military planning purposes, commissioned by Louis XIV and Napoleon.  There are over 100 in the collection, with about 15 of them on display.  Isako was mesmerized comparing the photos of the models with the present-day photos of the same regions.  Even the houses and window counts were identical in may cases.  In some cases you can see how land eroded, or was reinforced, or how the newer buildings were built on top of a foundation that was a ruin back in the 1700s.

Please click for the Musee de Plans Reliefs web sites, which has several pictures of their cool models.