Museum Challenge, installment #2

After a weekend full of non-stop yoga, I managed to squeeze in a fast museum run on Sunday afternoon. Accompanied by Peter, a friend from my yoga school, this weekend's destination was Napoleon's tomb and the Musée de l'Armée, the Army Museum. Napoleon was originally buried on the Island of Saint Helena where he spent the last six years of his life in exile. Two decades later, King Louis-Philippe decided the emperor deserved a better final resting place, so he was brought back to France and, another two decades later, in 1861, Napoleon was finally placed in a massive sarcophogus in the incredibly ornate, gold-domed building known as Invalides. Pompous can only begin to describe the Romanesque depictions of the former emperor and his accomplishments that embellish the walls along the lower level of his tomb. On the positive side, the inscriptions led to some discussion that taught me a bit about the structure of French law. (Apparently French civil law is still structured and based heavily on the Napoleonic Code.)

With only a few minutes left before closing, we had just a brief chance to swing through the museum. Here we got a crash course on the restoration of clothing artifacts from a museum guide whose work was on display as part of the Journées du Patrimoine, an annual event happening this weekend in which many national buildings and monuments open their doors to the public. After chatting with her, we checked out a collection of cavalry uniforms from the past few centuries. I was particularly impressed by the hats/helmets, which were adorned with a variety of plumage and dyed hair which all looked decidedly flamboyant. Then again, this was a French military history museum.

Musée de l'Armée: check. Stay tuned as the museum challenge continues.