In the previous chapter we discussed the question How Napoleon got to the island of Elba and why he left itNow that we know the reasons and the people involved, it's time to begin the long journey to Paris...
Napoleon Road Map
The beginning of Napoleon's journey – entanglement in Cannes
The force lands in the Gulf of Zoan. This is what the beach looks like today in the summer season. The landing point is on the beach where there is a marina today, and is marked with a stone,
Back then it was an open coastal area with an olive grove. Today it is the town plaza. If you cross the road, being careful not to get run over, you will reach the corner of Train Station Street, where you will find a sign: “Here begins the Napoleon Road.”
What was happening on the coast at that time? General de Brigade, Corsin, commander of the 87th Regiment, stationed in nearby Antibes, a two-kilometer walk, had just set out for a picnic on the island of Sainte-Marguerite, opposite CannesHis deputy, Colonel Ornano, a Corsican, who swore allegiance to the king and was not a sympathizer of Napoleon, replaced him.
Napoleon sends a detachment of twenty-three guardsmen under the command of an officer, Lamorte, toAntibes, with the proclamations he prepared, expecting that the soldiers in the city would rush to join his ranks. Orenno opens the city gate, lets them in, closes the gate behind them and throws them into prison. Starting on the left foot.
After a short wait on the beach, the force continues towards the town of Cannes. At that time, it was a small village built at the foot of a hill with a monastery at its top. Napoleon settled far from the village, knowing that its inhabitants were hostile to him. At that time, it was an open area. Today, it is a central street in Cannes called “Bivouac Napoleon,” a few dozen meters from the hall where the Cannes Film Festival is held. A stone plaque on the wall of a church there indicates that Napoleon spent the first night of the journey here.
Waking up at 05:30 before sunrise and powering up the mountain, walking 16 kilometers to Grasse.
Grasse
Cambronne precedes Napoleon with the advance guard. He arrives at the Marquis de Gordon, governor of the Hore region, who is based in Grasse, and demands that he order the preparation of 5,000 rations. He deliberately exaggerates the number to create the impression that the force that has landed is four times larger.
“In the name of which ruler are you making the order?” asks the Marquis.
“In the name of Emperor Napoleon,” Cambron replies.
“We have our own ruler and we love him,” says the Marquis,
And Cambron responds as Cambron knows how to respond.
"Mr. Mayor, I did not come to talk politics, but to demand the rations because my power is about to arrive at any moment."
This was enough for the Marquis, who prepared what he wanted and fled the city.
Napoleon intends to have breakfast at the Hotel de Dauphine, but the angry reception of the residents reminds him of the trip to Elba from last year, and he settles down for breakfast in a square outside the city overlooking the magnificent view of the Bay of Cannes.
To this day, this plaza is used for picnics, and a large sign reminds visitors who dined here before them.
While he is dining, two elderly people approach him, one working in the perfume industry and the other a farmer, and present him with a bouquet of violets. Napoleon is moved. This is the first expression of sympathy he has received. During Napoleon's exile in Elba, violets became a symbol of the uprising against the Bourbons, to the point that the government saw them as a sign of rebellion. It is said that when Napoleon left for Elba, he said that he would return when the violets bloomed. Since then, violets have been associated with Napoleon's resurrection.
Saint Vallier de Thiey
The next stop, Saint-Vallier-de-Thias, is a 10-kilometer walk. The road is narrow and they are forced to abandon the four cannons and the carriage. Napoleon, who started out as a gunner, appears to be in mourning, as if he had his hair cut.
Napoleon sits to rest under the elm or plane tree. A man approaches Napoleon with a tray of soft drinks in his hand. Bertrand jumps up and orders: “You drink first.” The fear of poisoning is great, and Napoleon drinks only after the man takes the first sip. The place where Napoleon sat is now marked on a monument.
We continue. The destination is Cernon, which is 1,000 meters above sea level, a 25-kilometer trek. The path is narrow and slippery due to the melting snow.
The Polish cavalrymen suffer the most. They are without horses and carry their heavy saddles on their backs, in addition to the great discomfort of marching in the cavalrymen's stiff trousers made of oiled leather.
Napoleon himself walked on foot, using a walking stick in one hand, while at his side walked Major Raul - Premier Officier d'Ordenance, a tough officer who would support him whenever he tried to fall.
The guard officer named Laborde notes that due to the road conditions, the column stretches for a great length – the length of an army column of twenty thousand soldiers marching on a regular road.
Ali notes that the soldiers are going as if on a trip, without discipline. They are not afraid of the enemy. They are on the homeland's soil and the population is extremely sparse.
Napoleon chose this difficult mountainous route in order to reduce contact with the population. Provence The hostile.
Seranon
After more than fifty kilometers from Cannes, the convoy arrives at Seranon – wet and frozen and Napoleon chilled.
Napoleon is greeted by the local priest Abee Cheris, who serves him two eggs. Napoleon eats. Eggs, that's for sure. The priest tells him about his relative, General Francois, who left his bones in Egypt along with about nine thousand other soldiers. He tells him that his mother lives in Cernon. Napoleon asks to see her, but is unable to contact her because she has not stopped lamenting her son. He orders Marchand to give her and the priest, who takes his fancy, 25 gold napoleons from the small purse that Marchand carries with him. A very large sum. He tells the priest that the bishop's mitre would suit him better than the flat hat of the country priest.
Napoleon will spend the night of the 2nd of March (Thursday night) in Cernon.
Castellan
We get up early again before sunrise and make the twenty-five-kilometer journey to Castellane. Castellane is the administrative capital of the Hore department. From afar, we can see the cliff that dominates the town at its foot. On the cliff is the church of “Notre Dame de la Roch”. Napoleon meets with the mayor, Monsieur de Francol, one of his loyalists who was deposed because he did not swear allegiance to the king. However, since his replacement has not yet arrived, he is still in office.
Napoleon sends three emissaries: Dr. Emery, a respected and multi-talented military doctor, is sent to Grenoble, his hometown, to contact a local aide, a glove maker named Dumoulin, to prepare the ground for Napoleon's arrival.
Another talented man, Pons d'Heraut, who had been in charge of the Elbe iron mines and had been Napoleon's acquaintance since the siege of Toulon in 1793, was sent to Marseille to meet and gain the support of Marshal Masséna, commander of the French army in the south, who had sworn allegiance to the Bourbons. Masséna could easily stop the expedition if he so wished.
A third messenger was sent to Lavalette in Paris.
The force continues to climb. Two mountain passes at an altitude of over 1,000 meters: Col de Toulanne and Col de Leaque, with the destination being a town called Barreme.
The town of Barreme
Cambronne arrives in Barreme before the main force. He enters the largest house in town, the home of Justice of the Peace Tartansson, goes to the kitchen and asks the landlady:
“What’s for dinner?”
“Today is Friday,” the landlady replies, “so there is: lentil soup, omelette, and cod.”
“Let me taste it,” says Cambron. “Ha, very tasty.”
And he places a guard over the pots so that they are not touched until the emperor arrives.
When Napoleon arrives, he climbs up to the second floor. The owners of the house are lined up to welcome him. As usual, he begins with a barrage of questions:
“Are you the owner of this house?”
“Yes, sir”
“What is your name?”
“Tartanson, sir”
“And who is the young man standing next to you?”
"This is my master's son."
“What is he doing?”
"He collects taxes."
Napoleon is satisfied with this, and invites the mayor and tells him that he is interested in purchasing all the carriages in the town that are suitable for two horses.
He then enters the room that has been made available to him, invites the owners of the house, and launches into a monologue:
I didn't arrive alone, additional forces landed in Provence, cavalry, artillery. They are moving on the main axis, we will join them. The army is with me. The Bourbons will no longer be able to rule, but they don't have to worry about their safety.
Judge Tartenson plucks up courage and says:
“The army may be with you, sir, but the residents are not, at least not in this region of the country.”
Napoleon ignores his remark and continues:
“In two days the Bourbons will hear of my arrival. My wife and son are on their way to Paris"On the twentieth of March I will sleep in the Tuileries Palace."
Then he turns to young Tartenson and says:
“Well, you come with us. You will be part of us. I will not forget you, I will arrange your future. You will receive a high rank.”
Young Tartenson exchanges frightened glances with his father and stammers:
“I am the Lord, you have approved.” France Better than here”
Napoleon ponders: “Is he royalist, is he cautious, is he shy?”
Then his attention is diverted to the little boy clinging to his father's feet, young Tartenson, and he asks:
“What is his name?”
“Alphonse, sir”
“How old is he?”
"Four years old."
Tears well up in Napoleon's eyes and he murmurs:
“Like the King of Rome,” his son, whose soul goes out to him and who in exactly seventeen days, on March 20, will turn four years old.
The precious tarwood
Napoleon dines with Drouot and Bertrand and retires to his room, where his two servants, Ali and Nobiraz, lie on the threshold of both doors. The house is full of officers from mouth to mouth who also sleep in the stairwell. Three hours of sleep is enough for Napoleon. He gets up at three, drinks coffee from the thermos he carries with him.
At five o'clock he eats beef soup and chats with Tartenson. He asks him about the state of tax collection, the reaction of the residents to the confiscation of the lands of the monastery in nearby Senez, and so on. Tartenson notices that Napoleon does not say "the King" but Bourbons and does not use the title "Royal".
At six o'clock the residents gather at the door of the house, wanting to see the emperor. One of them wears the white badge on his coat. Cambronne tears it off without a word. At seven o'clock Napoleon tries to mount a horse, but he has difficulty and needs help. Eyewitnesses are under the impression that he is wearing a bulletproof vest under his clothes for fear of assassination.
A silver strainer or strainer bearing the letter “N” is forgotten at home. An item that will become the family’s most precious possession, passed down from generation to generation to this day.
When Napoleon visited the house it was larger. Today only half of it remains as the other half was demolished to widen the road.
Fortunately, when I arrived at the house, Napoleon arrived there with his Polish cavalry, and the townspeople welcomed him with shouts of “Long live the Emperor.” However, when the real Napoleon visited there, no such shouts were heard.
Digne les bains
Next destination: Digne-les-bains, a 20-kilometer walk. A spa town. The water is at a constant temperature of 42 degrees. Napoleon's sister, Pauline, had visited there six months earlier.
The road is difficult. It passes through Bedujin, Chaudon, La Clape. In Chaudon, Napoleon sits to eat on a rock holding a loaf of bread under his armpit and holding a piece of chicken in his hand. The seat is uncomfortable. Since then, the place has been called: “Le mal asis” (uncomfortable seat). Anyone who visits Grenoble, and not only Grenoble, may come across a restaurant with this name. We are sure that only you and the owner of the restaurant will know the origin of the name.
At La Clape, another food break. An innkeeper serves Napoleon an omelet of two eggs. When it is finished, Napoleon asks to pay and asks: “How much?” The innkeeper replies: “It costs two gold napoleons.” An exorbitant price. “Oh, I see that eggs are very rare in this place,” Napoleon replies. “It’s not the eggs, it’s the emperors,” the innkeeper replies. I am not sure that the event actually happened as described, but there is a grain of truth in it, since what sets Napoleon apart is that ordinary people could talk to him “at eye level,” especially ordinary soldiers. It was not for nothing that Napoleon was nicknamed: Le Petit Caporal.
On the way to Digne, one of Puyresse's gold mules fell off a narrow path and fell into a chasm carrying two chests. Each contained 200,000 francs in coins. Puyresse cannot retrieve the chests alone. He runs to Digne, where the force has arrived in the meantime, and returns with a few soldiers. One chest remains intact. The other is broken. They collect the coins, but 32,520 Napoleons are missing and have not been found. To this day, they are looking for coins there.
Digne greets Napoleon with coldness and indifference. Napoleon begins to worry:
Why this silence, why this restraint on the part of the residents, who look at me as I pass and accompany me to the Le Petit Paris inn without uttering a word?
He enters Digne through the very narrow Rue Me're de Dieu. People watch the soldiers passing by from the windows with their blue and red shutters, as is customary in Provence. One of the women turns to him and asks: “Tell me, who is Napoleon?” The Emperor replies: “Madame c'est moi.
In Digne, Napoleon hears that Pons d'Heraut has been arrested by Massena in Marseille.
He writes to his wife, Marie-Louise:
My dear Marie.
I have written to you many times.
I'm sending someone to tell you that everything is going well.
I am admired and in control.
All I'm missing is you, my dear Louise, and my son.
Napoleon.
Napoleon is worried. Where are the cheering crowds he expected and “built” on? His entire plan was based on the support of the army and the mass support of the population. Where are they?
As they leave the city, someone finds a wooden eagle bed decoration. They stick it on a stick and hoist it at the top of the column.
The road is now much more comfortable. A wide, flat road along the Bleonne River, which merges with the Durance River further on.
Napoleon in a carriage (Cabriolet). Later he will change to a larger carriage (Chariot). Behind him is Puyrusse with the golden mules, and the Corsican soldiers in the assembly.
Sisteron
The advance guard is about thirty kilometers ahead of them and is heading for Sisteron. This is a key town in the journey as it lies on the Durance River – a wide river with a strong current – which is crossed by only one bridge located adjacent to the town.
The great fear is that the local commander Lovardo will blow up the bridge and delay the advance of the force so that army battalions from Marseille will have time to arrive and thwart the continuation of the journey. Napoleon is worried. He will spend the night in a camp that will be set up in the spacious garden of the Chateau de Malijai.
Meanwhile, the advance guard arrives at Sisteron. The civil governor, Marquis de Gombert, is militant and tries to organize resistance, but when Cambron arrives and demands that he prepare five thousand dishes – the governor is more worried – who will pay him for them. Cambron throws down his wallet and says: “Pay for yourself.”
The bridge did not blow up. Lovardo did not have enough explosives or enough courage. The next morning Napoleon advances towards Sisteron and when he sees through his binoculars the bridge intact he says cheerfully: Voila Meusieurs, nous somes a Paris (Gentlemen, we are in Paris).
However, the road is still long and fraught with dangers.
In Sisteron, Napoleon dines at the Bras d'Or Inn. He sees that the governor is wearing the white badge and advises him to remove it, saying that his soldiers might insult him.
He talks with the deputy governor, M. Bignon, whom he likes.
“What do people say about my arrival?”
“They are very surprised, sir.”
“Yes, but would they like to see me back on the throne?”
“I think so, sir, if they don’t fear conscription and the rest of the disasters.”
“Yes, I know, I did some stupid things. But I'm here to make amends. My people will be satisfied.”
“But you will certainly have other obstacles on the way to Paris,” Bignon insists.
“No! In Gap I have soldiers! In Corps I have soldiers. In Grenoble I have an army waiting for me. In Lyon I have ten thousand soldiers. Not a single drop of blood will be shed. Everything is coordinated with the foreign forces!!”
The Road to Gap
Napoleon is debating how to proceed. Whether through Gap and from there to Grenoble or to change the route and bypass Gap and continue through Valence (where he was posted as a second lieutenant in 1787). He fears the governor of Gap – M. de Hammond – a tough and capable man who is hostile to him. He sits on the stone bench leaning against the church wall and thinks, then gets up – continue to Gap. He cannot give up Grenoble. He expects that his luck will change there.
The journey to the Gap, a distance of 49 kilometers, will be made by carriage, and this time the force will move in an orderly military formation.
Gap is in the Isere department (then the Dauphine department) which he admires. As he approaches Gap, darkness is falling and then he sees: Gap is lit by hundreds or thousands of candles and torches. A turning point. He is excited.
He gives a speech to the people of Gap:
Citizens, residents of Gap
Your expression of feelings touches my heart.
Your prayers will be answered.
"The national interest will prevail again."
Chants: Long live the Emperor! You are our father! And he continues:
“You are right to call me your father.
I live only for the honor and benefit of France.
My return will fulfill your aspirations, protect your property, and ensure equal rights between the classes!
Rights – what have you enjoyed for twenty-five years!
Rights – which your ancestors wished for!!
He will spend the night of March 4th in Gap, at the Auberge Marchand.
Corps
Next destination: Corps, a 36 km walk, but a difficult mountain road. You have to climb the highest mountain pass on this route – Col Bayard – over 1,200 m. Snow-covered area.
What's happening in Grenoble at that time?
Lieutenant General Gabriel Marchand is the military commander of the 7th Division stationed in the area and he has sworn allegiance to the Bourbons. A talented officer who has participated in many Napoleonic battles. He knows that Napoleon must not be allowed to have contact with the army. Napoleon must be delayed and in the meantime the army must be kept away from him. He closes the city. Reinforces the 5th Battalion stationed in the city with two additional battalions: the 7th and the 11th. He calls Colonel Dellessart, commander of the 5th Battalion, and gives him a mission - to blow up a bridge called the High Bridge (Le haut pont) located on the outskirts of a town called La Mure, adjacent to Corps.
Fascinating. Thank you.
Many thanks for the fascinating article accompanied by great websites.
We would be happy to receive recommendations about the places mentioned on the Napoleon Road, what can be seen there, is it possible to skip some of them?
We are planning a family trip, 4 adults and 2 teenagers,
Starting from Marseille and ending in Lyon
Thanks in advance
Noah
Hello Noah.
I am planning a follow-up article that is more touristic and less historical about the places mentioned in the article. Unfortunately, due to previous projects, it will take a long time.
deer