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)

Pere Lachaise, encore

I met younger daughter Rachel at CDG early Monday morning and brought her back to the apartment. Her approach to jet lag, and most peoples' coming this way, is to fight through it as long as possible, stay up as close as possible to one's normal bed-time, and then, hopefully, get on a regular schedule sooner than later. For the fighting-through-it phase, we recommended a visit to the ever-popular and ever-fun Pere Lachaise cemetery, only a few blocks from our apartment, beautifully landscaped, quiet (except near the Jim Morrison site), stimulating in so many ways...not in anyone's top-10 Paris list, but in nearly everyone's top-20 or top-50. Although concerned about getting creeped-out, she agreed, and we made our--what?--4th or 5th visit to Pere Lachaise. We are actually learning our way around.

I love the fact it is on Rue de Repos

There are sites of great historical and cultural importance

Reminders that not all deaths are quiet and of little moment
(unless you're the one dying)

Oscar Wilde's tomb remains, I think, the most visited and revered at PL

Among the love letters for Wilde; his tomb is all behind glass, like the Mona Lisa

And the so-sad lines inscribed there

PL is also an architectural fashion show with neo-classical,
Gothic, not a lot of Art Nouveau, but here also a bit of Art
Deco

Street scene

The trees are beautiful and create shade, but there are other consequences...

Before it's all over, I will do a post on PL's creepiest/
goofiest tombs

Rachel was sort of creeped-out by this one; fortunately it was
at the end of our tour

Pere Lachaise closes at dusk; and they really want people to stay out