In the Hôtel des Invalides (a former military rest-home established by Napoleon) there are two churches and at least four museums. It’s like all of the Smithsonian Museums squished into one building – so much museological shock and awe that, after walking from one end of the complex to the other, I stopped off at the cafeteria before I even bought my admission ticket. It was clearly no day to skip breakfast.
The main attractions are Napoleon’s tomb, in one of the churches, and the Musée de l’Armée. The museum is surprisingly well-organized and accessible for a place which seems to hold multiple examples of every single armament and uniform every touched by a member of the French military. Thankfully, the museum is clearly broken up into areas by time period, so you can chose whether you want to gawk at knights or at tanks. Also, the display pays a lot of attention to army life in general, not just gory battles, so you don’t have to be a jarhead to enjoy yourself (although, speaking of enjoying yourself, a significant percentage of my fellow visitors were members of various armed forces, so it’s a good hunting ground if you’re into men or women in uniform). Be sure to check out the basement’s high-tech exhibition area dedicated to panting, throbbing adulation of Charles de Gaulle, which falls all over itself trying to make his legacy palatable to both the left and the right.
