Arc de Triomphe

I made true connections to Arc de Triomphe and Les Invalides not from our visit to Paris, but rather 4 months later when I finished reading biography NAPOLEON written by Emil Ludwig.

Best known as a great military commander and Emperor of France, Napoleon’s magnificent life left a uniform code of laws, a social order based on merit, not birthright. Napoleon felt grief for heavy losses and took good care of his soldiers. He first commissioned the building of the Arc de Triomphe as a monument to the country's military victories. Unfortunately, he was unable to see it finished before he died in exile.

“It is my wish that my ashes may repose on the banks of the Seine, in the midst of the French people, whom I have loved so well.” When Napoleon's coffin having travelled from St Helena Island to the banks of the Seine and arrived at the Les Invalides 20 years after his death, his country finally fulfilled his last will. Today, for me the Arc de Triomphe and the golden dome of Les Invalides are no longer the sight scenes of Paris, they are the embodiments of that great soul.

Napoleon’s touching stories have become my favorite topics since then. He was charming in personalities, from his excellence in math and Napoleon’s Theorem, his intensely romantic novellas and beautiful letters to his first wife Josephine during his Italian campaign, his grateful to the cafe shop owner and generous forgiveness to his ex-wife and generals who betrayed him, his strong sense of family, to his simple but workaholic lifestyle.Read more