Touring Paris and Le Musée de l'Armée

As my children were on their spring holidays, my wife and I decided that it was time to return to Paris and spend a few days touring the city, this time with the kids. Our last visit (I remember very well) was at the time of the invansion of Kuwait (we arrived the day before) in August 1990. That was even before we got married, so it was time!.

In addition to the typical touristical sightseen routes (Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Versailles...) I had the opportunity also to visit one of those places that a wargamer (specially if Napoleonic aficionado) can't really miss in Paris: Les Invalides, with Napoleon's Tomb and the Military Museum. True, it was a kind of a "fast-track visit" (around a couple of hours) but I had the opportunity to pass by the WWI,  WWII  and the Napoleonic wings of the museum.

I'm posting here the photos. Unfortunately, the museum display was not very good to take pictures: the low light levels used to protect the museum pieces implied that any light source around reflected on the glass cases like in a mirror, and some pictures are not very high quality. In addition flash was not allowed and I had to use the night-mode feature of my camera, that usually works well with a tripod (that I did not carry with me), and that's the reason why some of the pics may look slightly blurred.


So let's start the tour with a first view of the magnificient building erected to the glory of L'Empereur...

... and the not less magnificient and lavish tomb containing Napoleon's remains

A disgression here: looking at the picture above and the following  (Wellington's relatively humble tomb at St Paul's) who would you think was victorious at Waterloo? Clearly, Napoleon was not only a military but a marketing genius as well... even after his death.



The Napolenic War rooms had an impressive collection of French uniforms and weapons, but this was the area were I had more problems with the camera and finally had to discard a lot of the pictures. Let's start with   a a couple of French artillery caissons in extremely good condition.

A typical French fusilier habit-veste (I think this a late period model)...

... and this one belonging to a Voltiguer without epaulettes....

... a collection of shako plates and officers gorgets...

... a Guard d'Honeur uniform and shako...

... a cuirasser's body armour and helmet...

... the flag of the 1st Regiment of Grenadiers a Pied of the French Guard (in the exile of Saint Helene?)....

... and Le Petit Tondu himself

The WW I exhibition halls were also quite impressive. In the ground  floor a Renault F 17 tank in excellent condition (note: paint and markings are WW II period)....

... several models of the famous soixante-quinze gun (75mm)....

... a Belgian infantry uniform...

...several German uniforms Early and late war)...

... and French (blu ciel), British and American.

The Museum also owned an impressive collection of weaponry material, including mortars, machine guns, hand grenades and rifles all on show across several rooms. Here are some examples like the German Maxim 08....

...a British Vickers...

... the French Hotchkiss...

.. and a British Lewis Gun (did not seem too light to me...)

... plus a fairly large display of rifle and hand grenades.

Finally the WWII rooms (the largest of the show) filled several rooms divided by years and fronts (Wes/East Europe, Africa, and The Pacific). Impossible to capture the whole array of pieces, I just stopped in those that attracted my attention the most. For a start, we have some "heavy" pieces on display like the turret of a French R35 tank...

a German Pz II...

... a nice little Chenillette...

...and a German PAK 35

Some remarkable individual and support weapons like this MG 42 (sorry for the low quality)...

Unfortunately, to the recycling bin of my pc went the pictures of the Enfields, Garands, BARs, several mortar pieces, a Jeep Willys and large number of uniforms.

The final piece of the exhibition

There were other halls dedicated to the 30 Years War and the Seven Years War that fall our of my spam of wargaming interest. I passed by the latter on my way to the Napoleonic period rooms and seemed to have a very nice collection of items for those interested.

All in all, the museum is worth visiting and I really recommend you to reserve some time if you happen to go to Paris. Here you can find some useful information for your vist.