| The Esplanade des Invalides, striking due south from Pont Alexandre III, is a more attractive and uncluttered vista than the one from the Palais de Chaillot to the École Militaire. Looming at the Esplanade's southern end, with its resplendently gilded dome and heavy facade, is the Hôtel des Invalides, built as a home for invalided soldiers on the orders of Louis XIV. Under the dome are two churches, one for the soldiers, the other intended as a mausoleum for the king but now containing the mortal remains of Napoleon. Les Invalides today houses the vast Musée de l'Armée (daily: April–Sept 10am–6pm; Oct–March 10am–5pm; €6 ticket also valid for Napoleon's tomb; www.invalides.org), the national war museum, whose most interesting wing, reached via the south entrance beside the Église du Dôme, is devoted to Général de Gaulle and World War II. The battles, the resistance and the slow liberation are documented through imaginatively displayed war memorabilia combined with gripping reels of contemporary footage, many of which have an English-language option. You leave shocked, stirred, and with the distinct impression that de Gaulle was personally responsible for the liberation of France. By comparison, the vast collection of armour, uniforms and weapons that makes up the main part of the museum, on either side of the front court, is probably best left to tin-soldier fanatics or military history buffs. The east wing is given over to a stuffy history of the French armed forces from Louis XIV to Napoleon III, including a large section devoted to Napoleon's armies with some of Napoleon's personal effects including his horse, campaign tent and trademark hat and coat. The theme over in the west wing is much the same, if rather shinier, the old arsenal having been filled with medieval and Renaissance weaponry and armour, most of it laid out as if ready for use. Highlights include the extraordinary mail made for François I, a big man for his time, and a dimly lit chamber of beautifully worked Oriental weaponry. Upstairs, the 1914–18 gallery manages to reduce the epic tragedy of that conflict to some quibbles over helmet design. Up under the roof of the east wing, the super-scale models of French ports and fortified cities in the Musée des Plans-Reliefs (same hours and ticket as Musée de l'Armée above) are crying out for a few miniature armies. Essentially giant three-dimensional maps, they were created to plan defences or plot potential artillery positions. The collection was begun in 1668 by Louvois, Louis XIV's war minister, and was classed a historic monument in 1927 – their usefulness superseded by technical advances. With the eerie green glow of their landscapes only just illuminating the long, tunnel-like attic, the effect is rather chilling.
Pages in section ‘Invalides’: Église du Dôme, Bonaparte's bones.
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