Napoleon

Wednesday April 20

We started the day today thinking it would be fun to take Paul through the Paris catacombs, but upon seeing the line immediately changed our minds.  So instead of visiting the remains of many anonymous Parisians, we decided to go pay our respects to decidedly non-anonymous honorary Frenchman - Napoleon.   

Napoleon is buried at Les Invalides, a military hospital built by Louis XIV, which has been converted into a military museum.  The complex is absolutely enormous with giant museums dedicated to WWI and WWII, with an arms and armor museum, a large chapel for France’s war dead and a huge gold domed church with Napoleon’s tomb in its center.

Napoleon was not one to underplay his own importance. His remains are entombed in a gigantic red stone (actually porphyry) sarcophagus directly under the gold dome.  Inside the sarcophagus are six other coffins like a set of gruesome Napoleon stacking dolls. From the outside to the inside the coffins are oak, ebony, lead, lead, mahogany and tin.  I’m not sure why he need two lead coffins, but I guess he’s safe from any x-rays! The entire thing sits on a green granite pedestal and weights 67 tons.  Surrounding Napoleon’s impressive display are several other Sarcophagi with the remains of his two brothers Joseph and Jerome (installed as Kings of Spain and of Westphalia) and of and his son Napoleon II (King of Rome).

I don’t think Napoleon would find this amusing, but from the Trocadero you can see the gold dome of Les Invalides off to the left of the Eiffel tower.  While it looks large up close, from far away it is tiny and small.  It also lights up at night, but looks like the small little brother clambering for some attention. “Hey look at me, I light up too!  Aren’t I impressive? Hey over here LOOK AT ME!!!”

  We walked through the tombs and the WWI and WWII museums.  Both were well one and extraordinarly complete. They are supposed to be the best WWI and WWII museum in Europe, and I suspect the best in the world. After being at Normandy two days before we were riveted by newsreel coverage of the invasion.  I had told Katie while in Normandy that it was strange to see it in color when all the photos I’d ever seen were black and white.  She looked at me strangely, but there the coverage was again, in black and white.  “But you know real life is in color Mommy,” she told me.  While I know it, you still get an image in your head, and I see WWII in black and white.

The café at Les Invalides was small but reasonably priced and good food. We all had quiche, which was Katie’s first time.  She now loves quiche. Eggs, cheese, pie crust, what’s not to like? We quickly toured the Louis XIV to Napoleon exhibits and headed out for the day to relax on the grounds outside Les Invalides. A great thing about Paris is wherever there is grass you can flop down and relax.  Our apartment is actually only a few blocks from Les invalids so were able to walk home from there for Paul’s final night in Paris.