Paris - Day 4

After yesterday's adventure at Normandy, we recharged our batteries and ourselves last night. The lullaby of steady rain pattering on the cobblestones below our window blended with the midnight city traffic just enough to sing us to sleep. We awoke this morning, inhaled a bowl of Cheerios, and rearmed ourselves for another day of experiencing Paris.

We rode the Metro (subway) to the Trocadero, from where we had a spectacular view of the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower dominates the Paris skyline. Paris is a large city, but it does not have skyscrapers like Manhattan, Chicago, or even Little Rock. Most of the "tall" buildings are no more than four stories tall and were built in the 1860's. There is one ugly skyscraper that looks sorely out of place - almost as if after they build it, they thought: "Bad idea. Never mind." (Paris does have a more modern, skyscraping area far to the northwest of the historic city.) We crossed the bridge over the Seine River, walked under the tower, and strolled down the Champs de Mars.

While Kristi and Marna found a sandwich stand and bought lunch, Jason and I went to his military college to get his running shoes. He pointed out the places in the walls that still had bullet holes from machine gun fire during the liberation of Paris in 1944.

Our next stop was Les Invalides - originally a veterans hospital built by Louis XIV. While it still has a few ailing French military vets, it is now most famous for being the final resting place of Napoleon Bonaparte. It's quite a tombstone. Dr. Musteen provided an interpretive tour of each of the tombs in the former church.

We then spent the afternoon touring the Military Museum that takes up most of the Les Invalides compound. Lots of armor. Lots of cannons. Lots of armor. Lots of old guns with clockwork and wheels for firing mechanisms. Lots of armor. Some swords. More armor. Also a good museum on WWI and WWII.

We took the bus back to the Musteen residence, kicked off our shoes (but didn't put our feet on the hand-made chair covers!), and reflected on the day. I could have easily spent much more time examining the armor and guns. Kristi could have easily spent much less.

I almost forgot: Marna and I went on a hunting/gathering expedition to find some dinner. We wound our way down narrow streets and through little malls to her favorite meat market, where chickens were roasting on the rotisserie and potatoes were baking underneath. We bought a couple of baguettes and a little chocolate cake on the way back. It was a fine meal to say the least.

Tomorrow we catch the Eurostar train for a 3-day weekend in London. I will probably not be able to update this blog until we return Sunday night, or perhaps Monday morning.

More later.

Jeff

PS - Here are the day's pictures. Joe, please take note of the 3-barrelled pistol, various muzzle-loaders, and crossbows. Mike, there is a picture of a French fire station, but unfortunately the garage doors were shut.