Invalides~Musee de l'Armee



Les Invalides

Musee de l'armee (Army Museum) is just one part of the Invalides, which also includes Eglise du Dome where the tomb of Napoleon is located.  The esplanade in front of Invalides is 1/3 of a mile long and extends to the Alexander III bridge; across the bridge are the Grand and Petit Palais. It is an awesome view.  The front of the Invalides is bordered by gardens and a wide dry moat, ramparts are lined with 17th and 18th century cannons.

We had this museum on our list on a previous trip but it was closed for renovation (not uncommon in Paris).
All the guide books say to visit Napolean's Tomb at Les Invalides but not many tout the Army museum.  This was one of the best museums we have seen. There are 4 floors of military history covering the periods from the Middle Ages through WWII.  We spent the whole morning there and saw only one wing on one floor.
After buying our tickets we went through an exhibit area that housed a collection of Historical Figurines.  The collection includes characters from the Greeks around 1200 BC to the French at the end of the First Empire.   It was extraordinary.



Roman (1500-50 B.C.)



about 1200 A.D.

Time of Charlemagne

around 1600 A.D.

 

We then went to the 2nd floor and visited the WWI and WWII galleries.

The exhibits included artifacts, maps, statistics, front pages of newspapers, posters, film clips, radio broadcasts, artwork; anything relating to the two World Wars.
I have never seen such an extensive display of military items.
This was a real history lesson!



Gatling gun

There were a lot of artillery and firearms.

Displays showing the uniforms of different military units located in other parts of the world were included...wherever the French army was located at the time. i.e. Madagascar.

It was surprising how many of these there were.

Canteen woman of an infantry regiment 1880

A stretcher used to carry sick and wounded troops in Madagascar 1901.

I liked this...

Types of gas masks

Nazi Congress at Nuremburg 1937
Just mass of people in this photo made me cringe.

What a graphic!



A German naval mine

  

One of the many US war posters

 

contents of an US Army soldier pack~I took particular note of this
because of the Chiclets.  (My Dad is a Chiclet fanatic.)

This is a little motorcycle in it's parachute drop canister.
I thought this was clever.

US Marine

A bombed out French train station

The bomb dropped on Nagasaki and a photo of it hitting.
There was also a photo of the area after the bombing.
This was very sobering.

Of all the exhibits this is the one the truly amazed me.

  The number of those killed during WWII by country.

We spent hours just on these two areas.  Our stomachs were begging "lunch" and our fit were yelling "no more".  So we decided to save the rest for the next time.

The arcade around the courtyard of the Museum.  More cannons.

We strolled just a short distance from Invalides, on rue St. Dominque, we found a nice appealing restaurant Le Centenaire, it turned out to be another great choice.

I tried the Tartine; it's an open faced sandwich with cheese on top.  The frites were good and so was the Dijon dressing on the salad.  It was shady and comfortable.

Quai d'Orsay promenade

After lunch we walked along the Quai d'Orsay to the Pont Alexander III bridge, passed the Grand Palais to the #1 Metro stop and headed back to the apartment.

We were so tired that we didn't even go out for dinner tonight.  Tomorrow we're going on a day trip with Dick and Judy to Chateau de Chantilly, north of Paris.