Napoleon Bonaparte
My biggest takeaway from today: travel the way you want to. I came to Paris expecting to be entranced by modern art, designer boutiques, artisanal coffee, and all the classic Parisian highlights you read about. I’m proud to say that just isn’t my scene. How did I come to realize this, nobody asks? Well, it started with Sunday granting free access to every museum in Paris, as every first Sunday of the month does. I tried Musée d’Orsay but the line was far too long, exceeding the growth my patience has stretched these past few months. So, standing in the line for just long enough to google “museums near me”, I was re-directed to Centre Pompidou, the National Museum of Modern Art. The architecture was deceptively fun. The escalators run in these clear tubes outside the building so you can see the landscape as you ride up (the red tubes you see in the image). This was my favourite part. I honestly rode them a few times acting like I was lost so it seemed normal to go up and down aimlessly. Paris from above is beautiful. Inside, there was definitely modern art… but it wasn’t all that intriguing for me. I only took one image and it was this glass with fake gunshots through it. I thought the distortion was cool. I sped-walked through the whole museum, thinking “I could make this at home :/" a whole bunch. I probably spent more time on those damn escalators, and once again googling “museums near me”.
I wanted to get out of the modern-art-crazed-zoo that was downtown, so I picked the farthest one and found myself at the Army Museum (…3 hours later, still have not succumbed to the metro). Let me tell you, this was COOL. A grand arch leads you to a terrace with the museum inhabiting the old “Hôtel des Invalides”. It used to be a home for old and disabled soldiers, coined literally as “invalids”. Inside was an impressive collection of weapons, armour, artifacts, and paintings illustrating French military history. A big part of which, as I now know, is Napoléon Bonaparte. Here he is summarized in my words:
(1) this diva of a man went on a military winning streak expanding and revolutionizing France
(2) pissed a bunch of neighbouring parties off who aligned to overthrow him, and failed many times, exponentially inflating Napoléon’s ego (a series of seven coalitions spanned 20+ years to try and rain on this guy’s parade!)
(3) Napoléon eventually did lose in October 1813, was exiled from France, but returned in 1815 for his second go at emperor
(4) this re-ignited that fire, now bigger, under everybody else’s asses and he was overthrown again in exactly one hundred days
(5) under his reign, however, he completely turned around France’s legal system, education system, economy (french revolution!), religious freedom (he abolished slavery and granted the jews equal rights and citizenship in France!), and probably a whole lot else that I’m forgetting. Most of these systems and codes are still used in France today! Apparently a majority of the historic infrastructure still standing and awed over was his doing.
After hearing all this, you’re picturing some handsome macho prince charming, right? As was I. Wrong. He’s the emperor equivalent of a moody teenaged girl menstruating. No wonder he hid behind hundreds of cannons, probably had a lot to prove. Look at this guy.
I do believe he has justly earned his beauty sleep, as does Fance evidently, because his tomb was displayed in this stunning dome — the “Dome of the Invalids”, as it used to be the chapel and cathedral for these outcast soldiers. It is taller than Notre Dame. The sheer magnitude of the wars (both gains and losses) astonishes me, as well as the grandeur of hierarchy at the time, and I was thoroughly entertained learning about it all. Napoléon’s story really stood out to me, haven’t done a psychological deep-dive as to why yet, but his photos cheer me up now when I’m sad.
This feels like an appropriate amount of words and images dedicated to Napoléon, he already has a whole museum. Tying this all back to my moral of the story: from now on I am going to put my time and energy into the travelling and sight seeing that actually interests me, and I’m not going to feel guilty if it’s not as often raved about or showcased on social media. Future Aleda-specific adventures to come. I start teaching tomorrow, eek!
Yours truly,
Napoléon-obsessed-Beda
