Place Vendome

Note the hand tucked into the shirt as a nod to Napoleon.

So... I was in Paris, and this was something I had to stop by to see (and that my wife graciously agreed to go see with me).  To the ordinary observer, this was a mere column, lost in a sea of other monuments of any great city.  Not so for students of military history; it's a landmark that shouldn't be missed just because it's probably the most audaciously arrogant, trash talking "boo-yah" monument ever erected.

Brief history as to why: Multiple countries of Europe wanted to see Napoleon punished for basically being a jerk on an international level.  So they raised up armies together and sent them out to fight the lil' Emperor of the French.  Naturally.  

In 1805 a combined Russian and Austrian force, outnumbering Napoleon's, met up with him at a place called Austerlitz.  For his part, Napoleon pretended to be afraid in order to get the Russians and Austrians to fight him on the battleground of his choosing.  They did not know that he had already commanded his generals to scope out the battlefield because he promised them a battle there.  

Base of the column.

Long story short, in what was probably his finest battle, Napoleon made a laughingstock of the Russians and Austrians.  To add insult to injury though, he took their cannons, melted them down and viola! made a column of them, with a statue of his handsome self on top.  Naturally.  

And that's why I had to go there, off the regular beaten tourist path in Paris, to see the column made up of those cannons from the combined armies that tried to bring Napoleon down on a battleground of his choosing.