Last Day in Paris; Rodin Museum and the Tomb of Napolean Bonaparte

Posted by Michele September 20, 2022

Last Day in Paris; Rodin Museum and the Tomb of Napolean Bonaparte

Today is our last day in Paris and our last day in Europe. Tomorrow we fly home to New York, and the next day, home to Tennessee. It has been a fabulous trip, and my brain is overloaded, and confused, trying to remember everything we did, and everywhere we went.

Today is easy; We went to the Rodin Museum. There was some sort of demonstrations going on when we got there, so there were police blocking off all of the roads. Fortunately, we were able to reach the entrance to the Museum, from a side street.

We spent a lot of time in the gardens, viewing "The Gates of Hell", "The Thinker", "Adam and Eve", "The Burghers of Calais", and "Balzac", just to name a few. It was awesome to see so many of Auguste Rodin's (1840-1917) pieces in one place.

It was a great "last day" jaunt, as it is not too large, so we were able to just enjoy an easy stroll.

Afterward, we went to the Tomb of Napolean Bonaparte. That was quite an amazing, and absolutely stunning building, with a lovely garden outside. We did not go through all of the military museums but did view the Dome des Invalides, and Napolean's tomb, along with other shrines of France's leading military figures.

Interestingly enough, Napolean is encased in five coffins, inside a sarcophagus, made of purple quartzite. According to google; it looked like wood, of some sort to me. The coffins began with a tin casket, lined with white quilted satin, soldered shut, which was put inside a mahogany casket, which was screwed shut. These were then placed inside a lead casket that was soldered shut, and then another lead casket, and put into another mahogany or ebony casket, sealed with silver-headed irons screws.

These were then placed inside the sarcophagus. It looks like they wanted to make certain that he stayed put! (or so the story goes)

The domes, the flooring, and the sculptures were all amazing, and I am glad that we took the time to see the Dome des Invalides.

As we left, we walked through the garden, which surprisingly still had flowers in bloom. There were beautiful.

A quick metro back towards the hotel, and we could not resist stopping for a profiterole and beer, sitting in front of the Eiffel Tower! This was at 5 pm, so I guess it will be another sandwich from Alfi's, for dinner tonight.