Both of the Invalides churches are cold and dreary inside. The Soldier's Church is reached from the main courtyard, while the Église du Dôme (both churches same hours and ticket as Musée de l'Armée) has a separate entrance on the south side of the complex. The latter is a supreme example of architectural pomposity, with Corinthian columns and pilasters, and grandiose frescoes in abundance. Napoleon lies in a hole in the floor in a sarcophagus of red porphyry, enclosed within a gallery decorated with friezes of execrable taste and grovelling piety, captioned with quotations of awesome conceit from the great man such as "By its simplicity my code of law has done more good in France than all the laws which have preceded me"; and "Wherever the shadow of my rule has fallen, it has left lasting traces of its value". Napoleon's shadow still fell heavily on Paris on 14th December 1840, the day on which his ashes, freshly returned from St. Helena, were carried through the streets from the newly completed Arc de Triomphe to the Invalides. Even though Louis-Philippe, a Bourbon, was on the throne, and the emperor's nephew, Louis-Napoléon, had been imprisoned for attempting a coup four months earlier, the Bonapartists came out in force – half a million of them – to watch the Emperor's last journey. Victor Hugo commented that "it felt as if the whole of Paris had been poured to one side of the city, like liquid in a vase which has been tilted". Far more affecting than Napoleon's tomb is the simple memorial to Maréchal Foch, commander-in-chief of the allied forces at the end of World War I, which stands in the side chapel by the stairs leading down to the crypt. The marshal's effigy is borne by a phalanx of bronze infantrymen displaying a soldierly grief, the whole chamber flooded by blue light from the stained-glass windows.
|