Blog category: Paris
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The Palais-Royal: Social Centre of 19th-Century Paris
February 18, 2022
The Palais-Royal, a former royal palace in Paris, was a spectacular shopping, entertainment and dining complex for the first half of the 19th century. It attracted all of Parisian society, from the high to the low. In Napoleon in America, when General Jean-Pierre Piat is trying to confuse the policeman who is following him, he heads for the galleries of the Palais-Royal, “aiming to lose himself among the philosophers and rogues, the idle and the profligate, the pickpockets and ladies of fair virtue.”
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The Tuileries Palace under Napoleon I and Louis XVIII
April 30, 2021
One thing that Napoleon I and Louis XVIII had in common was a fondness for the Tuileries Palace, a magnificent building in Paris that no longer exists. The Tuileries Palace stood on the right (north) bank of the River Seine, at the eastern end of the Tuileries Garden, next to the Louvre Palace, to which it was joined. It was home to the rulers of France for almost 300 years.
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The Restaurateur: Dining in Paris in the Early 19th Century
February 22, 2019
A restaurateur is a person who owns or runs a restaurant. Dining options in France increased dramatically after the French Revolution, when unemployed cooks from aristocratic and royal households became restaurateurs.
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Napoleon’s Funeral in Paris in 1840
December 14, 2018
Napoleon Bonaparte died on May 5, 1821 as a British prisoner on the remote South Atlantic island of St. Helena. In 1840, his remains were dug up and transported to France on the ship La Belle Poule. On December 15, 1840, they were conveyed through Paris in a grand funeral procession, culminating in a mass at the Dôme des Invalides.
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Sunday in Paris in the 1830s
February 2, 2018
In describing Jean-Pierre Piat’s excursion through the streets of Paris in Napoleon in America, I tried to give an impression of what it was like to walk through the French capital in the early 1820s, during the reign of Louis XVIII. For a description of a stroll through Paris a decade later, it’s hard to beat the following extract from a 19th-century travel book. The anonymous British author provides a lively sense of a Sunday in Paris in the 1830s, during the reign of King Louis Philippe.
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New Year’s Day in Paris in the 1800s
December 29, 2017
New Year’s Day was a bigger celebration than Christmas in 19th-century France. New Year’s Day in Paris was a remarkable experience.
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The Bedroom Adventures of a Napoleonic Soldier
December 1, 2017
The adventures of a Napoleonic soldier in the bedroom can be as entertaining as his exploits on the battlefield. At least that’s the case when Jean-Roch Coignet, a grenadier in Napoleon’s Imperial Guard, tells the tale. In late 1809, at the age of 33, Coignet was back in Paris after the Austrian campaign, during which he had been promoted to sergeant. Wanting to improve his appearance to suit his new rank, he bought some false calves – padded attachments for the lower limbs – to make his legs look more shapely. Shortly thereafter, Coignet was invited to dinner at his captain’s house, along with some “distinguished military men and citizens and ladies of high degree.”
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Paris in the Summer of 1820
August 4, 2017
Feel like being transported to Paris in the summer of 1820? Louis XVIII was the King of France, Napoleon Bonaparte was in exile on St. Helena, and a plot to overthrow the Bourbon monarchy (in which Napoleon in America character Charles Fabvier was implicated) had just been uncovered. Here is a letter written by a visitor to Paris on August 25, 1820.
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Assassination Attempts on Napoleon Bonaparte
March 3, 2017
Napoleon Bonaparte faced between 20 and 30 attempts to assassinate him during his reign over France. Here’s a look at the best-known assassination attempts on Napoleon.
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Was Madame de Genlis Napoleon’s spy?
January 13, 2017
Madame de Genlis, a popular French writer, became a regular correspondent of Napoleon, leading to suspicions that she was his spy.
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The Coronation of Napoleon
December 2, 2016
Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned Emperor of the French on December 2, 1804 at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Things did not go smoothly.
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The Palace of the King of Rome
April 22, 2016
Imagine in Paris, across the river from the Eiffel Tower, a palace as magnificent as the one at Versailles, with a park covering about half of the present 16th arrondissement. This was Napoleon’s dream. In 1811, work began on a great imperial dwelling on the hill that is today known as the Trocadéro, where the Palais de Chaillot (built in 1937) now stands. Intended as a residence for Napoleon’s infant son, the planned complex was known as the palace of the King of Rome.
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The Marriage of Napoleon and Marie Louise
April 1, 2016
Fancy a royal wedding? Napoleon Bonaparte and his second wife Marie Louise had three of them. They were married in a religious ceremony on March 11, 1810, though Napoleon was not present for the occasion. They then had a civil wedding on April 1 and another religious wedding on April 2. Here’s a look at the festivities.
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Restoration Policeman & Spymaster Guy Delavau
August 21, 2015
Guy Delavau, the police chief who interrogates Pierre Viriot in Napoleon in America, presided over an elaborate and inefficient network to spy on suspected enemies of Bourbon rule during the Second Restoration. Those targeted range from the exalted, such as the Marquis de Lafayette, to the lowly, many of them innocent of wrongdoing.
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The Tragedy of Colonel Pierre Viriot
May 29, 2015
Pierre Viriot was a promising French soldier who wound up on the bad side of both the Napoleonic and the Bourbon regimes. His career was undone by his honourable involvement in the trial of the presumed kidnappers of French Senator Clément de Ris. Viriot’s sad tale shows the power of Napoleon’s police to ruin a man’s life.
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Barthélemy Bacheville: Napoleonic Soldier, Outlaw & Perfumer
May 15, 2015
A great admirer of Napoleon, Captain Barthélemy Bacheville fought in most of the Emperor’s campaigns and followed him into exile on Elba. This meant he returned to France with Napoleon when the latter escaped from Elba. Bacheville thus started off on a bad footing with the Bourbons after Napoleon’s 1815 defeat. Things got worse from there.
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Demi-soldes, the Half-Pay Napoleonic War Veterans
May 8, 2015
What happened to Napoleon’s officers after the Battle of Waterloo? In 1815-16, some 20,000 officers who had served under Napoleon were removed from active service, given reduced salaries and placed under tight restrictions. They became demi-soldes, France’s half-pay veterans of the Napoleonic Wars.
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General Jean-Pierre Piat, Staunch Bonapartist
April 24, 2015
Jean-Pierre Piat features in Napoleon in America because of his involvement in a Bonapartist plot against the government of Louis XVIII of France. In real life Piat was a courageous French soldier and devoted Bonapartist who was viewed with suspicion by the Bourbon regime. Late in his life Piat helped Napoleon’s nephew, Louis-Napoleon, rise to power after the 1848 French Revolution.
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The Moral Courage of General Foy
April 10, 2015
General Maximilien Sébastien Foy was a model of military and civic virtue. A courageous soldier during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, he refused to kowtow to Napoleon. Following Napoleon’s defeat, General Foy became an eloquent defender of liberty in the Chamber of Deputies. Foy was modest, hardworking and a man of integrity. He was greatly respected in France, as shown by the tributes paid to him and his family upon his death.
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Napoleon and the Marquis de Lafayette
March 27, 2015
Major General Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette, was a hero of both the American and French revolutions. Though Lafayette initially hoped that Napoleon would serve the cause of liberty, he was soon disillusioned. Lafayette became a continuing thorn in Napoleon’s side.
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René Savary, the Duke of Rovigo: Napoleon’s Henchman
March 6, 2015
French soldier, diplomat and police minister René Savary, the Duke of Rovigo, has the reputation of being one of Napoleon’s most bloodthirsty aides. Savary’s involvement in the death of the Duke of Enghien meant that he was not trusted by the Bourbons after Napoleon’s defeat. He was later rehabilitated for a brutal stint as commander of the French forces in Algeria.
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Napoleon’s Banker, Jacques Laffitte
January 30, 2015
Jacques Laffitte is a banker and politician who rose from poverty to become one of France’s richest men. Napoleon entrusted his fortune to Laffitte when he went into exile on St. Helena.
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Louise Marie Thérèse d’Artois: Mademoiselle of France
November 14, 2014
Louise Marie Thérèse d’Artois, granddaughter of Charles X of France, lived a life marked by murder, revolution and exile.
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Henri d’Artois, Unready to be King
November 7, 2014
Henri d’Artois, Duke of Bordeaux and Count of Chambord, was the last representative of the senior branch of the French Bourbon kings. He lost his royal privilege when his grandfather, Charles X, was compelled to abdicate. When Henri did have the opportunity to reclaim his throne, he didn’t take it.
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The Duke and Duchess of Angoulême
February 7, 2014
Married cousins Louis Antoine and Marie-Thérèse of France, children of the Bourbon kings Louis XVI and Charles X, led lives of disappointment, exile and sorrow. This ultimately strengthened the bond between them.
We must confess that fate, which sports with man, makes merry work with the affairs of this world.
Napoleon Bonaparte