Col GKS Reddy Coins: VISIT TO EUROPE - FRANCE - PARIS

CHAPPIDI ABHIRATH REDDY
C/O COL GKS REDDY

Secunderabad - 500015

Les Invalides

Les Invalides (French pronunciation: [lezɛ̃valid]), officially known as L'Hôtel national des Invalides (The National Residence of the Invalids), is a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, 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, the military museum of the Army of France, the Musée des Plans-Reliefs, and the Musée d'Histoire Contemporaine, as well as the burial site for some of France's war heroes, 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 name is a shortened form of hôpital des invalides The architect of Les Invalides was Libéral Bruant. The selected site was in the then suburban plain of Grenelle (plaine de Grenelle). By the time the enlarged project was completed in 1676, the river front measured 196 metres and the complex had fifteen courtyards, the largest being the cour d'honneur ("court of honour") for military parades. It was then felt that the veterans required a chapel. Jules Hardouin Mansart assisted the aged Bruant, and the chapel was finished in 1679 to Bruant's designs after the elder architect's death. The chapel is known as Église Saint-Louis des Invalides

Les Invalides Complex from the Railway Station Square

Entrance of Les Invalides Complex

Military Museum at the Invalides

The Military Museum is housed in one wing of the Invalides. It was opened in 1905 and combined the Artillery Museum and the Historical Military Museum. It is France's greatest military museum and one of the biggest in the world. The Turenne Room on the ground floor, the soldiers' former dining hall, has on show flags, trophies and standards from every period in history

Medieval Weapons

The Knight in Armour at the Entrance of the Museum

German Miniature Weapons os 16th to 18th Century. Compare the size of the

Weapons with my Index finger on the photo

The Maximilan Style of German Weapons produced in Nurenberg & Augsburg in 16th to 18th Cent

Full & Half Medieval French Armour

The French Chimere Armour 1550 AD

French Weather Proof Weapons 17th & 18th Cent

Emperor Qianlong's Military Costume (Armour)

The German Cavalry Armour 16th Cent

Bombard Mortor of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem - 15th cent. Cal - 580 mm,

Weight of Weapon - 3325 Kg and weight of projectile - 261 Kg

World War - I

French Char Renault ST 17 Tank - World War I

Gatling M APX 1895 Machine Gun - France

M 1897 75 mm Gun on Carriage - France 1918

Uniforms of the French Imperial Armies - World War I

G 7 Renault Taxi used by French Army in 1914 for Casualty Evacuation and other Administrative Duties

8 mm French Machine Gun & 76 mm German Cannon - 1916

World War - II

Puteaux M 1937 Semi - Auto 25 mm Gun - France

Turret of a German Panzer II Tank - 1937

French Renault 31R UE Tracked Inf Support Vehicle - 1931

German V-1 Rocket (Missile) with 210 Kms Range - 1944

Soviet Union 82 mm Mortar - 1942

US 105 mm HM2 A1 Light Artillery Gun - 1942

US 60 mm Mor & 12.5 mm (.50") Browing M2HB HMG - 1933

Belly Turret of US B - 17 Bomber

Nepoleon's Tomb

On 5 May 1821, Napoleon I passed away on the island of St. Helena, where he had been in exile since 1815. He was buried near a spring, in the shade of a few weeping willows, in the "valley of Geraniums". His remains stayed there until 1840. In 1840, King Louis-Philippe decided to transfer the Emperor's body. French sailors, under the command of the Prince of Joinville, brought his coffin to France aboard the ship "Belle Poule".

A state funeral accompanied the return of Emperor Napoleon I's ashes, which were transferred to Les Invalides on 15 December 1840 while the tomb was being built. The architect Visconti (1791-1853) was commissioned to make it in 1842 by King Louis-Philippe, who had extensive work carried out beneath the Dome, involving an immense excavation to create a space for the tomb. The body of Emperor Napoleon I was placed there on 2 April 1861.