![\"Plafond](\"http:\/\/www.chezarts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Invalides_Dome.jpg\")
<\/a>Plafond du d\u00f4me des Invalides<\/p><\/div>In Paris, I met with a French entrepreneur at the Caf\u00e9 de l’Esplanade. The sumptuous interior of this beautiful caf\u00e9 has clusters of cannon balls for chandeliers and cannons as pillars. I looked across the street at the H\u00f4tel des Invalides<\/a> with its long row of artillery at the end of the expansive lawn.<\/p>\n I had lived in Paris for many years but never spent time inside the Invalides<\/a>. As a teenager, war did not attract me. Soldiers and tactics were far from my concerns but over the years my perspective had changed. My interest in history had grown deeper. Revolution had taught me how an entire society can be transformed in a moment when all the forces and conditions come together. That day, I felt attracted not only by the Baroque<\/a> architecture of the building in front of me but also by the stories of great men and events that it contained inside.<\/p>\n