Blog | HPRG In a soldier’s shoes exhibition at the Army Museum, 12th October 2017 – 28th January 2018 – Hotels Paris Rive Gauche Blog

In a soldier’s shoes exhibition at the Army Museum, 12th October 2017 – 28th January 2018

The new exhibition at the Army Museum, on the Left Bank not far from our hotels, shows the everyday life of a soldier including everything… except combat.

As it turns out, soldiers spend the vast majority of their time not fighting, but training, keeping their sprits up and trying to remain motivated despite the endless waiting.

From Rome to the present day, it’s time to spend a bit of time in a soldier’s shoes

Here’s all the info.

Exposition Dans la peau d'un soldat au Musée de l'Armée du 12 octobre 2017 au 28 janvier 2018
© Paris – Musée de l’Armée, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais

If you think that the life of a soldier must be filled with exciting battles, you’d be quite mistaken. For its new exhibition, the Army Museum has chosen a subject never used before for an exhibition – the parts of a soldier’s life that are not related to combat.

In a soldier’s shoes starts with a chronological gallery displaying more than twenty soldiers from the time of ancient Rome to the present day, dressed, equipped and accompanied by the animals and vehicles that they worked with.

Next, the exhibition presents by theme the daily life of a soldier – the clothes, rations, medicine – that are different depending on his/her environment: city, desert, mountain or tropics.

In all, over 300 articles are presented, including numerous recent acquisitions.
Exposition Dans la peau d'un soldat au Musée de l'Armée du 12 octobre 2017 au 28 janvier 2018The exhibition also illustrates its theme through photos – the museum’s collections contain over 30,000 photos dating from 1849 to today showing military life.

You’ll also see a lot of interactive multimedia stations – a life-size virtual model, animated maps of four large-scale campaigns from ancient times to the Normandy landing, an animation about camouflage…

A lot less virtual, a ‘touching’ space is available halfway through the visit, where kids and their parents can actually wear and discover the contents of a bag belonging to one of Napoleon’s soldiers, or try on a modern bullet-proof vest.

Exposition Dans la peau d'un soldat au Musée de l'Armée du 12 octobre 2017 au 28 janvier 2018
© Collections BDIC / DM_0347_57

Related to the exhibition there are guided visits, eight concerts illustrating the daily life of a soldier, a selection of films, conferences, and a catalogue is available (256 pages, 400 illustrations, 29€ here at amazon.fr).

The exhibition In a soldier’s shoes is at the Army Museum (here) from 12th October 2017 – 28th January 2018

Open every day from 10am-5pm (6pm until 31st October). Last ticket 30 minutes before closing

Admission: 12€ / 9€ / free for under-18s

Website / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram