“Les Invalides, commonly known as Hôtel national des Invalides (The National Residence of the Invalids), is a complex of buildings in Paris containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans, the building’s original purpose. The buildings house the Musée de l’Armée, and the Dôme des Invalides, a large church with the tombs of some of France’s war heroes, most notably Napoleon Bonaparte. Louis XIV initiated the project by an order dated 24 November 1670, as a home and hospital for aged and unwell soldiers. The museum was created on this site in 1905 and its permanent collections are presented chronologically in ‘historical’ collections representing time periods, from Antiquity to the end of the Second World War, and rounded off with objects belonging to a certain theme (emblems, paintings, military decorations…).”
We spent an afternoon touring the WWI and WWII exhibits: http://www.musee-armee.fr/en/collections/museum-spaces/modern-department-from-louis-xiv-to-napoleon-iii-1643-1870.html
