On Saturday I met up with two of my grandparents' friends who are on vacation in Paris for about a week. We decided to go to the Musée Rodin, as none of us had ever been there. It was my first time using the card that CUPA gave me - free entrance to all the art museums in Paris! It was a hot day (85 degrees!), but we had a lovely time strolling around the gardens before it got too hot.
For those of you who aren't familiar with Rodin by name, you've probably seen his most famous sculpture, "The Thinker."
Then we went across the street to figure out what this beautiful golden-roofed building was:
It turned out to be L'Hôtel national des Invalides, which includes a retirement home for veterans, monuments, and a museum of military history. We bought tickets so that we could see Napoleon's tomb, which turned out to be one of the most extravagant buildings I've ever seen!
The ceiling:
A giant tomb for one very small man:
Opposite the entrance:
In the crypt:
I also happened upon the tomb of a former French colonial administrator who served in Madagascar (stay tuned - he'll appear in my thesis!)
We then went back outside and explored the beautiful gardens...
My CUPA friends texted me to say that they were going to the Musée d'Orsay, so I checked the map, saw that it was just a few métro stops away, and headed over! It was a bit of a whirlwind tour, as we had just an hour and a half before the museum closed, but here's a picture of the four of us sitting outside afterwards:
You'd never been to Les Invalides? Also— free access to all the museums of Paris WTF?!
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