Invalides

Time for one of the last cultural activities of the program, since next week it's pretty much all free afternoons. Though to be honest, unoficially, most of the afternoons have been free since that first time when Gina and I snuck out the back during the "Theaters of the 6th Arrondisment" walk.

So far we've missed lectures on Medieval France, Simone de Bouvoir, Old Churches of Paris, How to Make a Subway Face, and Chateaus of Paris. There's a rumor that there's going to be a "culture test" at the end of the program, but I'm pretty up on all the topics...except maybe Subway Face. I have to practice more for that one.

In fact, we weren't even going to go on this one- Invalides and the Rodin Museum- but Don and I really wanted to see the Camille Claudel exhibit. So while Gina went shopping, Don, Meredith and I trudged over to Invalides.

Invalides is pretty much Napoleon's giant mausoleum/church. It's pretty grand, with a huge dome, an altar, some alcoves with statues and giant paintings, and a room for Napoleon's coat. And the building is surrounded by some nice rose gardens with view of the almost omnipresent Eiffel Tower.

But the piece-de-resistance is Napoleon's coffin. Inside the building there's a large, circular opening that goes two-stories down. Right in the middle, there's a huge pedestal and resting there is the coffin. Or shall I say coffins.

Someone mentioned that there are really seven coffins, one inside the other, with Napoleon right in the middle. Like a babushka doll. The final outer coffin is probably twice as big as my apartment. Well, my apartment is tiny, so maybe bigger.

The whole thing is surrounded by twelve giant dour angel statues. And seriously, how obstentatious is that? When I die, I want my coffin surrounded by my big plastic penguin and my Phillipe Stark gnomes. C'mon, why not have a little fun?