Another rainy day in Paris… The rain comes in intervals of about 15-20 minutes, making it hard to get around. Coming out from the Metro station, I barely made it two steps when it started to pour. A quick turn around into the station, then after waiting for about 10 minutes, I braved the rain with my umbrella to get to Hotel les Invalides. This used to be a hospital for injured soldiers, but now is the tomb for Napoleon Bonaparte, a museum for World War I & II, and a place where they store relic weapons, including armors from the 14th – 17th centuries, and weapons from ancient Asia (Japanese & Chinese armors)
Turns out, I shouldn’t have bothered. About 5 minutes after I arrived, the rain stopped, hence explaining why Parisians almost always just step indoors and wait the rain out. This building is where Napoleon is entombed, inside a 5-layer coffin. The dome on top us made out of 14 kg of gold, and the inside has lots of art painted on the dome, and around it. Napoleon’s coffin is huge, 4m x 2m, and is recessed in a pit. Around it are various sculpted walls depicting him as an idealized roman emperor with his various actions. 
Around him, other people are buried, his favored generals and more. Just behind the tomb is a large, nice chapel, but it was closed to the public. There seems to be some sort of government building next to the tomb that had clear signs that said "no tourists".
Lining the corridors of this huge building 
were lots and lots of ancient canons, made out of various materials. There were so many that nobody really paid much attention to them, but each one was unique and had a small sign in French. Unfortunately, the English description varied between "Canon" to "Canon – Bronze".
The overall theme of this site seemed to be war. The World War I & II exhibits were pretty interesting to walk through, giving a good review of how the wars progressed over the years. They also had many exhibits with old uniforms and weapons. I found it interesting to read about the French resistance and how the allies sent multi-nation teams to link up with the local resistance to prepare for the counterattack against Germany.
I cut the day short since the weather was bad. It just isn’t worth going from place to place all sticky and carrying a wet umbrella. Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow.