While we were in Paris, we visited Les Invalides, which is an entire museum devoted to weapons and warfare.  It’s the Arms and Armor wing of the Metropolitan Museum on a grand scale. Caleb, our little war-monger, was in heaven. Liam acted all disaffected and snooty about what he claimed was Caleb’s immature love of weaponry, but then he wandered into the rooms of samurai weapons…and he never wanted to leave.

Yes, my favorite museum in Paris is the Rodin Museum, with Carnavelet a close second…but why look at paintings and sculptures when you can look at cannons, armor, crossbows, and daggers?

I did see a lovely sculpture, however, which captured the intimacy of a loving couple:

Where did I see this sculpture, in a war museum? This couple and its duplicate formed the handles on a huge bronze cannon.  Love and war, inextricable, as always.

And in another room, an elaborate carved crucifix, complete with an ivory death’s head:

Seems you pull a dagger out of the top of the crucifix, which serves as a sheath for the weapon inside.  Do with that fact what you will.