Napoleon and Me

Visiting the Hotel des Invalides, final resting place of Napoleon, was high on Tom's priority list for Paris. Semi-reluctantly, I agreed it would be a good way to spend a Saturday morning. Boy, was I wrong. It was a great experience! Seeing Napoleon's crypt in the absolutely gorgeous Dome Church was a little anticlimactic, but touring the Musee de l'Armee was superb. This huge museum covers military history from the Stone Age to World War II; it is fascinating.

The museum has a large collection of armor, mainly French but from other countries as well. Many of the suits of armor belonged to French kings, so they were decorated ornately. There were even tiny suits of armor for the princes; apparently they had to "practice" wearing armor before they went into battle when they were older.

The most fascinating part of the museum was a history of the World Wars, and what led up to each war. Several floors of the museum were dedicated to this history, and it was so well done, with lots of uniforms, weapons, recordings, films, personal papers and human interest stories. Most of the displays were translated into English; I don't think I've ever learned as much in any other museum. We spent almost four hours there, about double the time we usually spend in a museum.

Of course we had to break for lunch midway through the World Wars; we needed to sit down and rest, plus we were famished. There's a nice, if expensive, cafe right in the museum so we ate there. We were next in line to pay for our meals, right behind an old French gentleman leaning on an empty wheelchair. I was looking at the cashier and saw her start to giggle. I looked at the old man, glanced down and saw that his pants were down around his ankles! He didn't even realize it. The poor cashier was having a hard time keeping a straight face, but she gently told the old man and Tom and I looked away as if we were oblivious, while he pulled up his trousers. I seem to attract these men, and I don't know why...

We didn't get to the kids' apartment until 4:00, and they were ready to take Juliet out for her daily stroll. Tom went along, but I was too tired so I stayed at the apartment. Later we went to dinner at La Trattoria, an Italian restaurant only a few blocks away. We wanted to stay close because it's probably not good for Juliet to be out too long in the cold. It has been so stubbornly cold the entire time Tom has been here; about like it is at home in Indiana, but we expect Paris to be much milder, sometimes even in the 50's in February.

Normally Tom and I walk, walk, walk everywhere; this trip, we've been taking the Metro some place and going inside. It's just too cold to be outdoors. That's OK with us; we are enjoying being grandparents. Just feeding, changing and playing with Juliet is enough fun for us. We really didn't have enough time with her today; we'll have to rectify that tomorrow!