June 17, 2012

Today we met downstairs at noon in the hotel lobby.  We took a train and then walked to a local market and had lunch.  I had Chinese food that was better than any Chinese food I have ever had in the states.  After the market we walked to the Invalides.  The Invalides is where Napoleon Bonaparte and his sons are buried.  There are many stories surrounding this building, I will tell you a few.  Napoleon Bonaparte was Adolf Hitler's biggest hero.  Hitler visited Paris only one day during WWII and he stayed at the Invalides for 4 hours.  Let me back up... Napoleon's casket is on a lower level from where you stand viewing it.  It is this way so that even in death people would still have to bow to him (you have to bend over the railing to see the coffin, creating a bow).  Hitler heard about this trick and vowed he would never bow to anyone.  Upon his visit he had a set a mirrors installed so he could look straight ahead and see the tomb.  When he was viewing the tomb, a gust of wind came and blew his had off.  As he bent and reached to grab his hat he performed one of the most elegant bows.  This may or may not be a true story, the bike tour guide told us this.  After seeing Napoleon's tomb we walked to the back of the Invalides and visited the Arms and Armour Museum.  The museum contained military artifacts dating back to Napoleon's rule.  We then visited the Rodin Museum; the Rodin Museum is home to many different statues and works of art by August Rodin, the most famous of which is 'The Thinker'.  I have a really cool picture with the statue but it is on my facebook so check it out.  We then proceeded to walk to the Eiffel Tower and subsequently scaled the, what seemed like, 9 billion stairs to the second level.  At the second level we took an elevator to the top; I am not scared of heights at all but I developed a mild case of acrophobia being at the top.  It took us two hours to get up and then get down, and afterwards a few of us went and ate at the Moose.  I didn't eat there the other night so I decided to tonight, I had the moose burger and it was really good.  After this I went home and called it a night.

T