Arrondissements 6 & 7

Bon Soir!

First line of business for the day - find some chocolate. It had been a week and I had still not achieved this goal, so I wandered over to Rue Cler which is a quaint little food market street in Arrondissement 7.


and selected a nice little assortiment des chocolats. *Not the actual thing. I ate them before I thought to take a picture. But this is what they looked like. And what they tasted like :-)


I was on my way to see Napoleon's tomb and passed by the Eiffel Tower on my way. While taking this picture I received another fun ring proposal, this time by a 14 year old boy. The proposal didn't merit it's own picture. He didn't even get on his knee. I can't say that he was too crushed when I said no.


And on to L'Hotel des Invalides, where Napoleon's tomb is. I had done some wikipediaing last night so that I would appreciate the sights more. Louis XIV, Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Robespierre, Reign of Terror, Napoleon... I don't know why history is so much more interesting now than when I was in high school. It's pretty intriguing to think how the country and the world is shaped from kings and battles. And even more shocking to think how recently these events took place.

As for this little hotel (house), Louis XIV decided to create a house for injured soldiers in the late 1600's. Very thoughtful for a King I think! The hotel has a church (with a big dome behind it) for both the King and the military - which was sort of significant, connecting military and church like that.


The dome and it's little nooks honor both the Sun King (AKA Louis XIV) and the Eagle (AKA Napoleon Bonaparte). I don't know what everyone's overall sentiment for Napoleon is. My earlier take on him was negative - as is natural for anyone asserting themselves as an emperor in the civilized world of the 1800's. But I was reading up and it said that much of the spoils taken from the battles he led helped to restore France to some wealth and power after the Revolution. And supposedly he was pretty successful. Which is why he gets a marble sarcophagus and has thousands of people come say hello every year. I know it's fairly shallow to think, but that would be pretty rad.


Although if I were him, I'd be a little miffed that some General upstairs had a better designer and decorator. The color scheme on Napoleon's wasn't working so well.

The Hotel des Invalides also has a cool armory museum here. Picture Louis XIV as a little boy in this. Train them while they're young, right?


Now picture him as a grown man.


His child's armor must have stunted his growth because my rib cage is bigger than his :-( I don't remember who this horsed knight's armor belongs to, but wow. It leaves an impression, right?!


I was really getting my fill of history, but had to stop in tothe Charles de Gaulle Museum. Hello hi-tech.


It was pretty cool the way they designed the audio-visual effects but it was sort of lost on the fact that it was completely confusing and the headphones didn't work half of the time and you didn't know if the audio you heard applied to the station you were facing or the next one over since it was all automated by invisible sensors. Which is why I have no idea when this little clip occurred or what he was so excited about. But say hi to Monsieur Charles de Gaulle - who was a general and I think later a leader of France ? Since my headphones failed me, I will need to read up on that as well. I'm really hoping this is in fact General Charles de Gaulle and not some other WWII figure-head.


At this point I wanted to just explore the rest of the neighborhood and find a falafel. 2 miles and 100 creperies later, still no sign of a falafelerie, so I hopped on the metro to the Latin Quarter. It was very worth it, though I settled for a gyro.