On our second day we checked out of the hotel and went with our bus to the city centre.
We had free time until 06:00 PM.
Today was museum day for us. First we went to Les Invalides.
It is a complex of buildings containing museums and monuments,
all relating to the military history of France.
There is also a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans.
In this building you can find the Musée de l’Armée – the military museum , the Musée des Plans-Reliefs – museum of military models
and the Musée d’Histoire Contemporaine – museum of Contemporary History.
The Dôme des Invalides is a large former church in the centre of the
Les Invalides complex with the burial site for some of France’s war heroes, most famous is Napoleon Bonaparte.
When you enter the Dome you can see the Napoleon’s tomb from the balcony that looks at the tomb.
There is a story that they made it like that because everybody should take a bow to Napoleon.
And you need to lean a little bit to see the Tomb so it’s like you take a bow to it.
Invalides are huge, so it is best to have enough time for visit if you want to thoroughly see it.
We were there for three hours and we manage to see most of it.
After we went to the Museum Rodin.
I have to say it is one of my favorites. There you can see the Hotel Biron where are 300 Rodin’s works.
Some paintings by Monet, Renoir and Van Gogh are also presented.
The best thing is Sculpture Garden. You can enjoy the sculptures, sit a little on the bench, relax.
The gardens contain many of the famous sculptures in natural settings.
Behind the museum building is a small lake and casual restaurant.
The Musée Rodin contains most of Rodin’s significant creations,
including The Thinker, The Kiss and The Gates of Hell.
After our relaxing visit to this museum we had our last destination for today and it was the Musee d’Orsay.
The museum building was originally a railway station, Gare d’Orsay. The Museum was opened in 1986.
Here is mainly French art – paintings, sculptures, photography.
It has the largest collection of impressionist and post-Impressionist masterpieces in the world, from painters like Monet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne and Van Gogh.
After a whole day of walking through museums we were a little hungry.
So we went to have a sandwich with a fresh baguette and we headed for the bus, because we are going with the ferry to the UK.
