Napoleon

I'm getting around to doing the final France post at last! On our last day in France, Thursday, February 20th, we went to Les Invalides, which had the Army museum and Napoleon's tomb. After that we walked the Champs Elysees. Here's a journal entry from my tired self on that day:

Thursday, February 20th: The head cold that's been threatening for the past 2 days finally descended today. Ugh. I almost held it off till the end of our trip! I was so snotty and tired today. I did run 4 miles along the Seine out of sheer willpower, but I was tired and headachy the rest of the day. We went to Napoleon's tomb at Les Invalides and the Musée Armée today. The kids liked it way better than me, just like last time. Jay said it was his favorite museum that we've gone to.

I was hoping to go to the Rodin museum which is the next block over from the massive Invalides, but the kids wanted to stay longer at the arms museum, and by the time we left Invalides, I was too exhausted, stuffy, sinus throbby, and hungry to suggest a trip to Rodin. Sigh. Oh well, I am plenty museum-ed out. I just wanted to visit more than 6 museums using our 6 day Paris museum pass. 6 museums made the pass cost break even, but visiting 7+ museums made it a super deal. We barely managed to visit 6 museums on the pass, but we did go to 7 museums total: the 7th one was Les Egouts sewer museum, which we paid for separately.

After the armor museum, we walked the Champs-Elysees and had carbonara for lunch at a restaurant there. I also had soup a l'oignion and it was pure heavenly redemption after yesterday's subpar soup. It was a multiple lactase pill lunch for me, haha. After lunch, we finished walking the Champs-Elysees and took the metro back to the Airbnb. We got back around 4pm. No nap today, because I was hoping to go to the Picasso museum. But it closed at 6pm and I didn't have energy soon enough to walk the 1 kilometer there.

Jeff and Jay got galette kebabs for dinner tonight and brought them back to our apartment. Jeff and I went to a pharmacy for a decongestant, but the pharmacist ended up giving me a bitter antihistamine/vitamin C/tylenol powder to dissolve in water. Bleh. I just want a decongestant!! We fly home tomorrow. It's going to be a lonnnng journey. 

Pictures from my run along the Seine:

The door to our Airbnb apartment. It was on a quaint quiet cozy pedestrians only passageway. The only downside was people liked to duck off the busy sidewalk into the passageway to smoke.

Les Invalides:

It was big.

The iconic golden dome over Napoleon's tomb.

These one dimensional toy soldiers were pretty nifty. 

Figurines made out of cards: one dimensional figurines painted so delicately--these were so cool!

A painted violin. It kind of looks tatooed.

Historic military instruments on display.

A sweet pistol kit.

This mess kit and other equipment looks so bulky and heavy! Where did they store all of it? 

Rose, peeking through a hole blasted in a breastplate.

Rose and I were amused at how tiny so many of the men's uniforms were.

Social media origins? Apparently this was a fad in the early days of photography: having a stash of self portraits to hand out to friends.

I was fascinated to learn about the Cantiniere women, who wore military-inspired uniforms and sold alcohol to soldiers. They were permitted to fight in battles as needed. What a life!

A replica of one of the classic French towns: Mont Saint-Michel.

Jay with a sweet old car.

Amber was bigger than this child's armor!

Inside the Dome des Invalides.

Looking down at Napoleon's casket.

In this large box lies a tiny man: Napoleon Bonaparte.

Another view of Napoleon's grave/tomb.

Amber enjoyed finding as many of the highlights listed in the museum map as possible. We had to stay long enough for her to complete the Napoleon section of the treasure hunt. This is the final statue that she found.

Napoleon selfie!

In the courtyard of les Invalides. It used to be a military hospital--hence the name, invalids.

Walking along the Champs-Elysees towards the Arc de Triomphe.

Champs-Elysees selfie!

We passed so many swanky designer stores along the Champs-Elysees. Louis Vuitton was remodeling its store, so they put up this fancy wall full of name brand labeled rivets to cover the front of the building during construction.

Walking through Les Halles shopping area. We lingered to wait for a downpour to end.

The legendary Lego Store of Les Halles, with its Parisian monuments built with Legos.

Lego Notre Dame

Raspberry eclairs were new territory--I've only ever seen chocolate eclairs before. They were good, but I liked the lemon tarts and Paris-brest better.

Weird French cold medicine. It's they wanted me to just go home and suffer through it without any actual relief. Non-medicated nasal spray and that awful bitter powdered tylenol-vitamin C-antihistamine mix. Bleh. Haha, I was not feeling great! The tissues helped.

I had to get this felted Napoleon Christmas tree ornament to go with the Louis IV and Marie Antoinette ornaments I got 6 years ago. We will have an increasingly royal Christmas tree!

Squeezed onto the train heading for the airport: actually, I took this picture before the real squeezing began. It would've been too awkward to take a picture when we were smashed against strangers during the last 2/3 of that train ride.

On the plane ready to fly home!

Phew, it only took me five weeks to finish the France posts! A final budget reckoning put us at $9,900 for the trip, which was quite snazzy for a 10 day trip to and from France for a family of five. It was a FUN family adventure! It might be a decade or two before I feel up for another museum. I miss the pastries! Yay for French family memories!