Musée de l'Armée

We breezed through the Museum of the Army in a couple hours, concentrating on the more recent stuff. Knowing a bit of military history--well, knowing your own country's version or versions--always makes for interesting experiences. I have been looking at war museums here and there for many years, but I think it has been since 1979 that I was at the Musee de l'Armee here in Paris. I was pleased with the coverage, extensiveness, fairness, and willingness to address some of the difficult parts of the story. Here are a few of the scores of pix I took.

They lost the Franco-Prussian War largely because they were still wearing silly hats

1890s nationalistic board game 

One of the Paris taxis commandeered for the Battle of the Marne; their
importance in the battle has been exaggerated,the display said

Rifles developed for trench warfare; "over the top" meant something very
different then

The account of American involvement in WWI was generous,
I thought

War posters were everywhere and good; propaganda is always
a big part of the story for me

Thus

Then came another war

And another hero emerged

After France's surrender, the French fleet withdrew to neutral or African ports;
Churchill  feared it would eventually fall into German hands, and, after due
warning, ordered it sunk

Axis depiction of Churchill after the above; thousands of
French were killed and the wounds between allies took some
time to heal

There is ample attention to the American war effort, in the Pacific as well as
in Europe; here, a great model of the old carrier Enterprise, c. 1944 (Grumman
Avenger torpedo bombers and Curtis-Wright Helldiver bombers ready for
take-off), somewhere in the central Pacific

Rome, not Tipperary

One of those episodes you hear rather less about sometimes: in 1942, 6,000
Canadian troops were sent to land and attack the fortified Normandy port of
Dieppe; the point and purpose of all this is rather shrouded in military and
political history and intrigue; half the Canadians were killed or captured, the
other half barely got back to Britain; more unhappiness among the allies;
Churchill was in Moscow trying desperately to keep Russia in the war

Two years later, over Normandy

Liberation of Paris

Le tombeau de Napoléon

Wednesday Rachel and I Metro'd to the Invalides, to do the military museum there and to see Napoleon's tomb. Not that we are big Napoleon fans; Rachel was a history major and read a lot of military history, and so have I.

The Tomb, a familiar Paris landmark

Part of the church, part of the large Invalides complex

Inside the church

In the dome

Modeled somewhat on St. Peter's in Rome

Other national heroes; Foch

Lyautey

Napoleon's nice porphyry tomb; just like the ones at the
Vatican museum which were thought to have been
Constantine's and his mom's (St. Helen)

Now in the museum of the army; Ingres' portrait of Napoleon
as emperor; we basically did Louis XIV to the present,
emphasizing Napoleon and WWI and WWII (next post)

Napoleon's horse...a) Trigger, b) Traveler, c) Shadowfax, or
d) Marengo; the correct answer is d) Marengo

Typical (and actual) campaign gear for the emperor

French breast-plate from Waterloo; "God favors the larger
armies," Frederick the Great once wryly observed; He also
favors the larger calibers, I observe

Bofinger Brasserie

Bofinger brasserie, in the Place de la Bastille, is an old Paris restaurant, Belle Epoche or more. It is of Alsatian origin--that can yield a variety of connotations over the last 150 years--but the food is reputable, the service wonderful, and the decor...well, that's what you come to see. And savor.

Nothing to look at on the outside

Sometimes the food is so good you forget to document; here are the remains of
Vicki's strawberry gazpacho dessert; not pictured are the oysters, the foie gras,
the onion soup, the Alsatian special sausages and sauerkraut (best sauerkraut
ever), etc.; thus for the food; and the great Grimbergen bier

We enjoyed our meals sitting under this

The lower dining area

Upstairs, King Gambrinus

The lighting, chandeliers upstairs were outstanding

Thus

And thus

The paintings

Thus

Marquetry covering the walls of the entire second floor

In the bathrooms downstairs

Ditto

Best Art Nouveau urinals ever; so far

Musée Carnavalet

Rachel wanted to orient herself to the City, and so, with a variety of stops, back-tracks, lunch, and more stops, we walked from our apartment to Notre Dame and then the Hotel de Ville and the Metro back home; by way of Place de la Bastille, Place des Vosges, the Marais, Ile St. Louis, etc. Two miles more or less. One stop was the Musee Carnvalet, Paris' city museum.

Entering Musee Carnavalet

A hall of metal signs; plenty of these are still around; some are not; some lucky
ones get into the museum

A collection of porcelain showing balloons; lighter-than-air flight was quite the
rage in the latter 18th century, and Paris was where it began

Taking the Bastille; the Revolution and its aftermath are the
big story here--a big story anywhere--but I'm afraid we did
not do a very good job with this museum; it's not very well
organized, and none is in English--so we just hit the parts
that made most sense to us...considering that some of us were
jet-lagged and others hungry

David's Le sermont du Jeu de Paume, le 20 Juin, 1789; let the bad times begin!

Rights of Man

Louis XVI's last abode; pretty damn nice if you ask me

Monsieur Guillotine

Charlotte Corday removes Marat from the
Reign of Terror

Corbet's General Bonaparte

Levosier's General Bonaparte

Louis Boulanger's La Liberte, allegorie des journees de Juillet, 
1830; hmmm, I wonder how this relates to a much more
famous painting by Delacroix...

Victor Navlet's 1852 view of Paris (with balloons); some
more hard times to come, 1870-71, 1914-1918, and especially
1940-1944; but things were going to be all right

Backtracking a bit on our walk, beautifully-painted ceiling in the Hotel Sully
(bookstore)