Gypsy at Heart: Day 4: Who is Buried in Napolean's Tomb?

Above: Our apartment building on r. Montmartre

After my morning walk to the bakery for croissants and (this time) a scrumptious chocolat almande, Mommy and I enjoyed coffee and breakfast in our apartment. The French do not sell cream or half-and-half for your coffee; rather, they sell bottles of "demi-creme" that are more syrupy than milky. We tried that for a couple of days and decided that we had better just buy plain milk instead. There is nothing like French milk in your coffee, smooth and thick. In Parisian laid-back fashion, we relished our breakfast before hitting the sidewalk for a rather chilly day of sightseeing.

(The metro stop at Bourse)

We came out of the metro right in front of Les Invalides, the huge veterans' hospital built by Louis XIV which now houses in part an Army Museum in addition to a contemporary military hospital. For a few hours, we ooed and ahed over an enormous collection of armour, weaponry, and artillery pieces from the middle ages through WWII. This museum was the one place I was told I simply had to see by friends in the Fort McHenry Guard. The collection is truly a royal one that must be worth billions of dollars.

The imposing inner courtyard of Les Invalides

A magnificent display of armour in the Musee de L'Armee

A priest's uniform from WWI

At the center of Les Invalides was our next stop, Napolean's Tomb. The chapel is split into two halves by a glass windowpane in the center, on either side of which are grand altars. Originally, Louis XIV built the chapel so that he could attend private Masses there knowing that his army was nearby, in their own chapel on the other side of a glass divider. Now, with the focal point of the king's side of the chapel being the magnificent tomb of the emperor, all that is left to testify to Louis are the sun carvings and the "L"s carved in the stone all over the walls and ceiling.

The dome/ceiling of the king's chapel at Les Invalides

Napolean has long been a favorite fascination of mine for his brilliant military innovations and for his involvement in a period of history when the Church owned land and fought wars. I am fairly certain that, had I been alive, Napolean would have fallen in love with me over Josephine. ;)

The Emperor Napolean

Before leaving Les Invalides, we visited the veteran's chapel "on the other side" of the glass where the veterans still attend Mass. The upper ceiling is lined with captured enemy flags, dusty and mainly gray with age, a testament to the valiant Frenchmen who fought and continue to fight in service of their country. The rest of the chapel was sparsely decorated, but I thought the muted tones of the stonework and the way the light played around the chapel was breathtaking. It was one of my two favorite churches that we visited in Paris.

The veteran's chapel at Les Invalides

Mommy was getting tired, so she took the metro to the Champs-Elysees while I walked to meet her there. I must say I *adore* walking around the streets of Paris, drinking in the sights of people and places and getting in touch with the pulse of the city through the sidewalks. I could do it for the rest of my life! On my way to the world-famous avenue, I loitered on the grandiose Pont Alexandre III (built in honor of the Franco-Prussian alliance) and waved to boat captains in their cargo ships on the Seine before going on my way. I got twisted around and ended up at Pl. de la Concorde with its obelisk. I had no idea where I was until I noticed that everyone around me was taking picture of something in the opposite direction. I turned around, and there in front of me, down the Champs-Elysees, was the magnificent Arc de Triomphe.

Then I realized I was standing in the middle of the road and had to make a mad dash for the sidewalk.

Pont Alexandre III

The Champs-Elysees was fun for window shopping (Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Renault are a few of the stores that line the avenue) but there were too many people for it to be truly enjoyable. Possibly the most amusing experience was walking into the Gucci store - not to buy, but to say that I had been inside - and I overheard an English gentleman apologetically telling his female companion about the Gucci keychains ($80 each!): "Honey, just pick three." When I found Mommy, we went to a sidewalk cafe for cafe au lait, a pignelle (for Mommy) and a pain suisse (for me). Then we continued to the Arc de Triomphe.

The Arc de Triomphe, seen from the Champs-Elysees

At the Arc, begun but not finished by Napolean in honor of his military victories, I got to flirt with a group of dashing French soldiers (with their HUGE gold epaulets) in between taking pictures from the top of the Arc of sprawling Paris below and visiting the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Mommy went back to the room when we were done, and I walked back down the Champs-Elysees before catching a metro back myself. The metro trains are interesting because you have the added excitement of having to manually flip a latch to open the doors on the train. I ran right into several train doors before I remembered that they weren't automatic.