The Musée des Plans-Reliefs is hidden under the roof of a sidewing of Hôtel des Invalides. It contains scale models of cities en fortresses.
I find the small world of models appealing, and I ask myself what lies behind this attractiveness. It is somehow related to the small scale. The small figures remind us of toys.
Yet these maquettes are no toys. They are part of a collection of French military pieces, collected since the 17th century, under the reign of king Louis XIV.
One of the pieces shows a fragment of a city in the snow. With these models, engineers practiced on a small scale, for an event on a larger scale: war.
What makes practicing on a small scale suitable?
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