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Alrighty, after this one, I'll be fully up to date!
It's been raining all day today, so I decided to visit le musee des invalides. The building have had various uses over the years, but now it's been turned mainly into a war museum, one of the largest in the world. It also holds the tomb of Napoelon...y'know the insecure, short guy?
First off is the part of the museum dedicated to the middle-ages through the 18th century, and the weapons and armor of those periods. I have never seen so many intricately decorated suits of armor, halbards, crossbows, and matchlock pistols in my life. Of particular interest were a couple of triple barrelled pistols (really impractical looking), some helmets shaped like funny faces, and some royal armor. Mmm... armor. They even had full suits of plate-mail for kids.
After that, there was the Charles de Gaule museum/exhibition. They just opened it in February, it's a fully state of the art, interactive, multimedia dream. You've never seen video done so well before. Although the tour parts are all en francais seulement, i learned a great deal about the man who shaped the destiny of this country. Quite a
guy.
For those of you who have ever had to make a maquette, there is also an entire floor of one wing dedicated to the scale models that have been built of french fortifications over the centuries. Yes, that's right, CENTURIES. I think the oldest one dates back to the mid-1700's. They used to build them to be used for defence planning, so they are really accurate, and highly detailed. the biggest one is about 8m x 6m... 24'x18'. At 1/600 scale. I've got pictures.
As I was leaving the model room, there were a bunch of people in uniform from a number of different countries gathering in the courtyard... something interesting was brewing. They split into two groups, each would visit both the de Gaule exhibit and Napoleon's tomb, so I figured I'd have time to check out the tomb. Let me tell you, his tomb is appropriate in size to his legacy. I couldn't help but laugh at the sheer size of the coffin/tomb-thingy (I've apparently become less articulate during this trip). It's HUGE, probably big enough to fit twenty of me inside comfortably.
After coming out of the tomb, back into the courtyard, I
was treated to the pleasant surprise of the US Marines Drum and Bugle Corps, the US Marine rifle drill corps thingy (yup, articulate), and the French Army's Drum and Bugle Corps (or equivilent) performing. I've got tons of pictures, and a bunch of video too. It seems like I'm constantly being in exactly the right place at the right time. It's been like a dream!
After leaving the museum, I finally found an AC adaptor, and have been updating this blog since. I went out to St. Germaine for dinner (escargot, duck in pepper sauce, creme brulee, wine, and coffee (27 euro)), and am now sitting in a 24/24h internet cafe at 2am. I'm going to leave now, so I can find my way home by bus. I'll try to publish the photos soon, but it might have to wait until I get back to Toronto. I'll try to stop by the cafe at the end of the day tomorrow!
If the weather is good, I'll go hit the towers of Notre Dame first, then the Arch de Triumphe (it's late, I can't spell to save my life right now), then the Eiffel Tower. Thursday will be the
Louvre again, or D'orsay... or Picasso... or.... maybe I'll just relax by the seine. Who knows?
G'night all! I hope things are well with you all, I'll be seeing you soon!
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verne
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yay thingy!
sounds like a fantastic visit, paul! the scale-model room sounds like a trip. also duly noted is that you seem to know what a "halbard" is, and that you enjoy it. the full plate-mailed kid cracks me up. i guess you were just supposed to stuff 'em in, then roll 'em into a corner? cuz surely to gus they couldn't move themselves in it. really, it's the most convenient storage method for kids. don't know why we don't do it today. oh, right. the price of steel. alright, and the human rights abuses. *fine!*