Editing Les Invalides (section)

=== North Front and entrance ===

[[File:Hôtel des Invalides, North View, Paris 7e 140402 1.jpg|thumb|center|800px|The north front of the Invalides: Hardouin-Mansart's Dome, behind it, stands above Bruant's pedimented central block]]

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File:Paris - Les Invalides - Façade nord - Statue de Minerve - PA00088714 - 004.jpg|The portal is guarded by a statue of the Goddess [[Minerva]]
File:North portal of Hôtel des Invalides, Paris 11 June 2013.jpg|The north portal, depicting Louis XIV on horseback
File:Paris - Les Invalides - Façade nord - 005.jpg|Statue of Mars, the God of War, by the north portal
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[[Hardouin-Mansart]]'s Dome chapel is large enough to dominate the long façade yet harmonizes with Bruant's door under an arched pediment on the north front of Les Invalides. To the north, the courtyard (cour d'honneur) is extended by a wide public esplanade (''Esplanade des Invalides'') where the embassies of Austria and Finland are neighbors of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, all forming one of the grand open spaces in the heart of Paris. At its far end, the [[Pont Alexandre III]] links this grand urbanistic axis with the [[Petit Palais]] and the [[Grand Palais]]. The [[Pont des Invalides]] is next, downstream the Seine river.