Scary masques and war

If you spend any time in Paris a good part of it will be at the numerous museums this fair city has to offer.  One reason is that the spoils of conquest could be safely guarded here, the other is because this is where much of significant history occurred.

Okay, so we started our day late again because, despite our best efforts, the sleeping schedule begins around 7:30pm to 9:30/10pm (boom! wide awake) then from 4:30am to 9 or so. The rest of the time we're running around.

So we needed to get the visit to Eiffel Tower out of the way.  As we are staying in the 7th arrondissement, we are well situated to a variety of tourist attractions.  The Tour de Eiffel is pretty incredible as it towers overs much of the western half of the city.  We passed on a chance to wait 45 plus minutes to travel to the top and decided to just dodge vendors who peddle miniatures of the monument throughout day.  Two tactics here: The Indian guys would display them in their various sizes on a white blanket and the African guys would tote them on enormous key chains as they shuffled through the crowds.  Perhaps this speaks of some broader cultural approaches to mercantilism... but I'm getting dangerously off base here.  Check out our pictures!

Next was a short stroll to the nearby Musée du quai Branly, dedicated to the native arts of Oceania, Asia Africa and the Americas.  Here was a beautiful museum which housed a stunning amount of artifacts from the aforementioned conquests (uh, I mean discoveries ;)

We started with the special exhibition of the artifacts of Dogon culture, in an area currently known as the West African nation of Mali. Great masks and amazing statuettes dating back hundreds of years.

The we moved onto the Oceania section because we knew they would have the funkiest specimens.  The Met in New York has quite a few interesting artifacts from this part of the world, but nothing as crazy as the the stuff we saw here. 

 Elaborately decorated human skulls

Elaborately decorated human skulls

Human skulls housed in ornamental fish/boat totems.

These goofy, scary and just plain awesome forms were a real feast for the eyes and Melissa likened them to fever visions.

Ned desperately wanted one of these staffs.

Still in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, we headed over to Les Invalides and the Musée de Armée

A model Renault FT 17 in the courtyard. The first tank of its kind with gun turret on top and an engine in back.  Probably could only contain a crew of two; commander/gunner and driver and was used in the latter half of the first World War.  Any volunteers? 

Here's another spooky mask, but this one is from early twentieth century Europe, a WWI camouflage suit used in trench warfare.

The French love their dioramas. This is one of a World War I trench.

More creepy masks, uniforms, guns and artillery from that savage conflict:

A German V-1 rocket used in WWII to terrorize the citizens of London in the latter half of the war.  Further down the stairwell to the exit was a V-2 rocket.

Wow, what do you know? Another diorama! This one is of Chapel Saint Louis des Invalides housed inside Les Invalides.

Just behind was the crypt for Napoleon Bonaparte.  His remains were brought back to France in 1840 and a modest little tomb was constructed of red quartzite in 1861 along with various understated mementos:

I get the feeling that the French were pretty jazzed about this guy when all was said and done.

Then we headed home for an early dinner and to make plans for a trip out of town 

(details later.)  

On our way back, we saw the most amazing chocolate forms in a window display.  

A chocolate Dremel? Really?