The Royal Abbey of Val-de-Grâce

Built in the mid-17th century by the architect François Mansart, at the request of Queen Anne of Austria to give thanks for the birth of her son, the future Louis XIV, the church of the old Royal Abbey of Notre-Dame du Val-de-Grâce in Paris' 5th arrondissement, not far from the Luxembourg Garden, is an impressive example of the French Baroque classical style. Dedicated to the Nativity, it has a choir containing a remarkable canopy with twisting marble columns, paintings by Philippe de Champaigne, sculptures by Michel Anguier, and a majestic cupola whose monumental fresco of The Glory of the Blessed was painted by Pierre Mignard in 1663.

The Abbey of Val-de-Grâce was turned into a military hospital in the French Revolution, and nowadays houses the Museum of the Military Health Service. Based in conventual buildings next to the cloister and its elegant French-style garden, the museum tells the story of military medicine through its collections of uniforms and pharmacy objects.