When he doesn't have school on Wednesdays, we always have a lazy morning of eating breakfast and reading for an hour or so. Then we make the plan for the day. As for this lovely Spring day, we decided to grab lunch from the store downstairs and have a picnic outside of the Dome of Invalides. Just to add a little fun, I told Zac that we should style his hair crazy since it was incredibly messed up beyond repair. I am not sure how he sleeps in order to get his hair so cockeyed, but this time I made lemonade out of lemons. I used gel, a hairdryer, and a straightener. He was smiling like I've never seen before. Just seconds before we stepped out the door took a deep breath and said, "Oh Connie, I just know everyone is going to stare at me and think that my hair is crazy! Ya-hoooo! Let's go..." And so we did.
Two minutes later and voila!Here is a summary of our history lesson, masterfully shortened for your pleasure. L'hopital Des Invalides was initiated by Louis XIV in 1671 to house injured and veteran soldiers who had fought in his wars. At the time, the location was suburban Paris, but by the completion of the project, it had grown to be a very prominent setting.
Invalides has more canons than a canon museum. I am not sure if canon museums exist, I just wanted you to have an idea just how many there were. It was to the point that they were used as decor around the facilities. Each of them were individual and said different things which I could not read, or had little desire to try.
We walked around for a while, just soaking up the first beautiful Spring day in Paris. Art students were lounging on benches sketching scenes, families strolled through the garden speaking in their native tongue, and Zac ran and ran and ran and said "Connie come now" twenty-seven times in that first ten minutes. All of the shrubberies were manicured so perfectly that I felt almost as if I were walking through the mazes of Alice and Wonderland.Notice the beloved Eiffel in the background.
ENTREZ!
Inside the main doors - look at the ceiling beams.
Canon hardware (redundant).
Named cannons - this one is L'INVINCIBLE (pronounced la-vance-eebl) and means The Invincible of course.
Le Gentil (pronounced luh-jaun-tee) and means The Great.
The beautiful craftsmanship is unparalleled and it was used on an instrument to cause quite a bit of destruction and fatalities.
This is the inside of the compound, just after entering through the main doors. There is quite a bit of construction going on, but you can still get the full effect. As you can see, original cobblestones still cover the ground throughout. Just straight ahead through the center entrance was our next destination, L'eglise Saint-Louis. This is the chapel that was built because it was realized that the residents at Les Invalides would need one. Once built, beginning in 1677, it was required to attend each and every day.
Ahhhhhhhhhh! I love the sun.
The flags that hang from the ceiling are ones that were captured from enemy forces during the 19th and 20th century French military campaigns.
This was the most beautiful organ I've seen and I imagine that it is hardly used anymore. It dates back to 1679!
If you look through the glass walls at the back of the chapel, you can see the altar in the Dome Church just on the other side. However, it has a separate entrance.
For solders' honor
Looking through this window from the church you can see outside another wall of the compound.
I couldn't get over the beauty of the doors. Massive solid doors.
We exited through a mass chaos of renovation. As you can see from the picture below, this is what old buildings actually look like before they are made to look new again. I almost prefer to see the aging process. It's like seeing woman age gracefully rather than botoxing and face-lifting their mugs to an almost non-recognizable state. However I understand the preservation of history, so I guess it's okay. But don't get a face lift. That's the moral of this story.
More canons, all shapes and sizes.
After walking through the chapel, we purchased our tickets to the museum, then found seats in the garden to eat. Zac's amazing eye caught the only open bench (but soon after the woman on the one next to us left). He called it the most amazing lunch we've had together because of the weather and location and the delicious sandwich that only a true chef could make.
We took a walk around before entering into the Dome and the museums. I am not quite sure who this guy is supposed to be, but I like the picture.
Isn't Spring beautiful?!?
A view from the Dome Church looking down Avenue de Breteuil. Zac's friend Adrien lives on this street. It's also very popular for joggers, walking dogs, picnicking, napping and playing music.
We finally entered the Dome and received our audioguides, English for me and French for Zac. The first thing a person notices is the top of the Dome. It was actually inspired by Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. There are four main corners. Each corner houses someone - Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's older brother; Jerome Bonaparte, his younger brother; another brother whose name I can't remember; and General Foch.The tomb of Joseph Bonaparte
Renovation was occurring in the tomb of Jerome Bonaparte, but this is the tomb that differs from the other. In all the others, they are placed in the center of the rooms.
This is the tomb of Lyautey, one of Napoleon's comrades-in-arms. You can notice the Hebrew written on the sides, but nothing was labeled to show the translation. It was his heritage.
The tomb of General Foch. There was construction going on where they were using black lights. I wasn't sure if I would get a picture at all, much less something this eerie. You can't even tell it's made of stone.
On the far wall is a view of the tomb of Vauban, the war architect under Napoleon. The center circle allows you a view overlooking the crypt.
A hat and frock coat of Napoleon are on display. I was shocked to see it was so well preserved. He actually wore this in Saint Helena which is the place of his death. He was exiled there by the British, so that he would be far away from his homeland. The king issued a decree to have his remains be brought back to Paris. Les Invalides was still not complete at that point, so his remains were held in a temporary quarter. It was in 1861 that his body finally found it's final resting place.
This is the altar in the Eglise du Dome. It is actually the second one as the first one destroyed during the French Revolution. The inscription are the words of Napoleon. It translates something similar to (using my broken French): I desire to have my ashes placed near the banks of the Seine amongst the people of France, whom I've always loved.
The scene soon after Napoleon's death in Saint Helena.
This shows when Napoleon's body was brought back from Saint Helena and the new succession occurred.
Napoleon's sarcophagus is in the crypt of the church. All around it are the ten low-relief sculptures of his civil achievements - pacification of the county, centralising the administration, council of state, civil code, concordat, imperial university, revenue court, commerce and industry code, major words, and legion of honor. Within his sarcophagus which is made of a majestic single carved blog of Finnish red porphry from, lie five other successive coffins(one made of tin, one of mahogany, two of lead and one of ebony). 
Looking towards the top of the church from the crypt.
The statue of Napoleon III, the grandson of the great Napoleon I, who was the King of Rome.
One of the low-relief sculptures. This one represents the Major Works.
We read everything we could and took pictures of anything that had color or shape. Zac was getting tired and the clock ticked to 2:00pm quicker than expected. We left the church and headed over to the Musee de L'Armee, basically The Army Museum. It was more modern than I expected, but had quite a bit of things from World War II.
Letters to the legendary Charles de Gaulle
Not exactly a welcome banner to the room. 
This room had signs saying that all men were required to sign up for the military, one declaring victory, and another one Vive de Gaulle (Long Live de Gaulle).
After walking around more Zac cried out saying that he was so tired and ready to go home and play with his Pokemon cards. It has been his new fascination. They are really expensive here (5,50 euros = around 9 dollars) and he has never had any. His friends give him all their extras so he has roughly 20 cards now and he plays them constantly.I didn't want to leave the outdoors, just to go inside. Days like this are rare and I wanted to soak in it. The view from Les Invalides is pretty historic. You can see Le Grand Palais, Le Petit Palais, Pont Alexandre III...
As you can see, there is a moat that goes around the entirety of the compound. Also, if you look to the left of the picture, our building is in view. 
It was another day out with the kid. He always gives me something to laugh about. Once we got back home, I cooked, he played with his cards, and when his siblings arrived, he quizzed them about Napoleon. He loves when he knows all the answers and they don't.
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