It was posted here a few years ago. A hiking trail on the Right Bank in the footsteps of Napoleon Which was very successful. However, the emperor also lived, built, and influenced the Left Bank, so it was time to cross the Seine and tour the Ile de la Cité and the Left Bank in his wake.
The itinerary, through which we will travel through Paris in a few seconds, is partially based on the lecture “A Night with Napoleon in Paris,” which can be viewed here:
Finished watching the lecture? Let's get started!
A hiking trail on the Left Bank following Napoleon
Notre Dame Church
We begin our tour on the Île de la Cité. The place was completely transformed during the reign of Napoleon I's nephew, Napoleon III (reigned 1-3), but two places associated with the emperor still remain here. France.
The first place is the flower and bird market, which was established by order of the emperor in 1804. You will find flower sellers there during the week, while during the weekend bird sellers come here, specializing in ornamental and songbirds.
After you have finished visiting there, you are welcome to continue toNotre Dame Cathedral,Which is a few minutes walk away, and you can even enter it (after its renovation is completed, of course).
This is where Napoleon was crowned emperor on December 2, 1804, an event immortalized in the famous painting by Jacques-Louis David.
It should be noted that Notre Dame Cathedral was never used for the coronation of the kings of France, who were crowned in the city of Reims, and Napoleon chose it both for its great prestige and so that he could create a new imperial tradition. But was it true that no king of France was crowned in this church?
Not exactly. In 1422, King Henry VI of England (reigned 6-1422 and 1461-1470) was crowned here as King of France and England. Thus, for the next thirty years or so, Henry VI ruled, at least formally, over France, until Charles VII succeeded in driving the English out of most of the French kingdom, thus ending the Hundred Years' War in 1471.
But let's return to the story of Napoleon's coronation. Napoleon woke up at 08:00 in the morning to the sound of cannons and left the Tuileries Palace in a magnificent carriage, through thePalais Royal AndVon Nef To Notre Dame Cathedral, where he was crowned by Pope Pius VII. In 7, an accurate 2005D reconstruction of the coronation ceremony was made, and you are invited to watch it in the following video:
After you've finished watching the video, it's time to move to the left bank where our tour will continue.
Auberge du Cadran Bleu, Rue de la Huchette 4-8
Today it is a street of cheap restaurants and tourist traps, but in 1795 Napoleon lived here, when he rejected the offer to go to the Vendée region, which was rebelling against the revolutionary government. It was also here that he accepted the offer of Barra, the head of the Directory, to defend the convent – the bloody action that propelled him to greatness.
Saint-Michel Bridge
After visiting rue de la Huchette, you are welcome to continue straight, among crowds of tourists, until you reach Place Saint-Michel.
Here you will find the famous fountain and the statue of Saint-Michel, but few know that Napoleon III wanted to place a statue of his uncle here. However, his advisors said that this might cause resentment among quite a few people, so it was decided to order the statue that we all see.
After you've finished admiring the fountain, look north toward the bridge connecting the Left Bank to the Ile de la Cité. This bridge existed before Napoleon's time, but he ordered the removal of the houses that stood on it, which were both an aesthetic and safety hazard.
The Petit Luxembourg Palace
From Place Saint-Michel, continue along Boulevard Saint-Michel towards Luxembourg Gardens From there they turned to 11 Rue Vaugirard. There, in the Petit Luxembourg Palace, Consul Bonaparte resided from November 11, 1799 until he moved to the Tuileries Palace on February 19, 1800.
This palace has a long history and was home to, among others, Cardinal Richelieu (while he was building the Palais Cardinal, which would later become thePalais Royal) and the Count of Provence (future Louis XVIII). Today it is the residence of the President of the French Senate and can be visited during the “Heritage Days” (Journées européennes du patrimoine) which take place during September.
Before we continue, here are a few more articles about Paris That may interest you:
- The Arc de Triomphe: The most beautiful viewpoint in Paris (that you shouldn't miss)
- Notre Dame Cathedral and Ile de la Cite: The Guide to the Historic Heart of Paris
- Champs-Elysees: Walking trails, recommended hotels, attractions and museums
The invalid
The distance between the Luxembourg Gardens and our next stop is a bit long, so it's worth considering getting there by metro or bus. Either way, you're welcome to come toPalais des Invalides In whose church Napoleon is buried.
The emperor died of stomach cancer on the island of Saint Helena on May 5, 1821, and was buried there. However, Louis Philippe (reigned 1830-1848) managed to obtain permission from the British to bring his body to France in 1840. As a result, an expedition arrived on the island of Saint Helena and removed the body, which was well preserved, from its grave, and began a long journey across the Atlantic Ocean and later on the Seine River, until they reached Paris.
On December 1840, 1670, the emperor's funeral procession set out for the Dome des Invalides, the church located at the back of the large and impressive Hotel Des Invalides that Louis XIV built around XNUMX to serve as a residence for invalid veterans (disabled veteran soldiers).
While still alive, Napoleon conceived the idea of turning the church into a mausoleum and ordered the bones of two of France's greatest generals, Turenne and Vauban, to be transferred there, as if he wanted to indicate the place where he himself would like to be buried when his day comes.
Make no mistake – the large red marble tombstone that marks Napoleon's grave today, the work of the architect and sculptor Visconti, was only placed there in 1861, twenty-one years after the funeral procession, at the end of a major renovation that was carried out on the site. Until then, Napoleon's tomb had been in the corner of the church.
At the end of that renovation, the bones of other great generals will be transferred to the site, including the hero of World War I, Marshal Foch. All of them are buried within the perimeter of the circle - a circle, in the center of which is the tomb - Napoleon's tomb.
The funeral procession left Courbevoie and passed throughArc de Triomphe, whose construction has been completed in the meantime, and downstream The ElyseesThe coffin was carried on a huge golden chariot – ten meters high and weighing thirteen tons, drawn by sixteen white horses, dressed in golden robes – arranged in four rows, four horses in each row. The chariot was hung with purple velvet sheets decorated with the imperial bees. The coffin was surrounded by fourteen golden statues of victory goddesses and imperial eagles.
The funeral has a military character – soldiers march in formation and bands play marches. On both sides of the Avenue des Élysées stand eighteen additional statues of victory goddesses. When the procession reaches thePlace de la Concorde It is preceded by four triumphal columns and eight statues symbolizing the achievements of the French nation in various fields: wisdom, power, war, agriculture, art, rhetoric, and commerce. The procession will now turn right towards the bridge that crosses the Seine, with the large structure of Les Invalides visible on the other side, and behind it the soaring dome of the Dome des Invalides.
On the bridge stands a huge statue, symbolizing immortality (Imortalite'), and on the other side of the bridge awaits the convoy a large bronze statue of the Emperor himself. On both sides of the road between the bridge and the Des Invalides Hotel, stand thirty-two statues of famous generals from France's past, including generals from the distant past, including:
- Joan of Arc
- Bertrand Dogcalan
- Vauban
- Tourne
- Conde
- Clovis (first king of France)
Alongside these were also the statues of several recent military leaders who had passed away, including Lazrae Hoche, as well as marshals from Napoleon's army: Kellerman, Jourdan, Lannes, Massena, Bessiere, McDonald and Ney. The latter was executed by firing squad by the Bourbons, after their return to power, on charges of treason and was rehabilitated by King Louis-Philippe. The procession reached the Invalides. Here the coffin descended and was carried on the shoulders of officers from the various branches of the army marching to the rhythm of a slow march.
Here is a clip from the film Monsieur N that well describes the climax of the funeral:
Before we continue, if you would like to get to know the Invalides Palace and the church where Napoleon is buried better, you are welcome to read the article Les Invalides – When the “Soldier’s House” Becomes a Magnificent Palace.
In the audience stood a man of Jewish origin - a German Jewish poet - Heinrich Heine. Heine, who had moved from his hometown of Düsseldorf, in the Lower Rhine Valley in Westphalia, ten years earlier, upon learning of the removal of the Bourbons in the July Revolution of 1830. Heine was one of Napoleon's admirers. He saw him as the bearer of the banner of freedom and progress. And he would immortalize the experience of the funeral in an ode that he wrote. And I would like to quote to you a passage from this ode, translated by the poet, Shlomo Tanai:
The emperor has indeed risen from the dead.
But English worms at ease
They made him a silent man.
So he asked to return to the haystack.
I saw the funeral with my own eyes.
I saw the golden carriage.
And golden victory goddesses
Carrying the golden ark on his back
All along the Avenue des Elysées
And at the gate of victory passes
In the fog and across the snow
The procession slowly drags on.
The orchestra was terribly loud.
And the musicians became frozen
For the commissioners and flag eagles
I bow down in great sorrow.
The people looked like sleepwalkers.
Lost in old memories
The Imperial Fairy Tale Dream
Conjured up from the abyss of years
At my house that day in my eyes
A wave of tears appeared.
When the call of forgotten love
Vive l'Empereur has arrived.
Officers' School (École militaire)
Napoleon, aged 15, first arrived in Paris on 21 October 1784, on a ship on the Seine, from which he disembarked at Corbeil la veille and went straight to the military school for officers. He is a very thin, alert boy, with dark hair flowing down to his shoulders, his eyes piercing, older than his years, somewhat threatening. He speaks French With a heavy Corsican accent, and despite the self-control he displays, he has difficulty hiding his excitement upon entering the building and encountering the hustle and bustle of the streets of Paris, which he has visited for the first time in his life.
Napoleon would graduate from the school in one year (instead of two) in 43rd place out of 54 students, which shows that teachers' assessments should not be taken too seriously.
Chaillot Palace (Palais de Chaillot)
We will end our tour of the Left Bank of Paris not far from the Champs-Elysées, where the young Napoleon practiced orderly exercises while studying at the military academy. Not far from there was supposed to be the Chaillot Palace, the product of a grandiose building plan conceived by Napoleon – the construction of a monumental palace, which ultimately remained on the drawing sheets of the architects Percier and Fontaine.
And this is the story of the palace: On March 20, 1810, Napoleon's son was born to his wife, Marie Louise, and he received the title Roi de Rome. Napoleon wanted to build for his son a vast and magnificent imperial palace that would surpass all the palaces that Europe had known up to that time. The palace was intended to be built in one of the most impressive places in Paris – on Chaillot Hill overlooking the Seine River.
Where Napoleon's palace was supposed to stand, now stands the new Trocadero Palace, built in 1930. He himself replaced the old, ugly palace, built for the 1876 World's Fair, and it's good that he was patronized by it.
The planned palace was not supposed to include just a palace, but a huge government complex that included government offices, a university, a national archive, a national library, and more. The complex was supposed to cover a huge area, on the banks of the Seine River. To the Bois de Boulogne Between Port Maillot and La Muette – half of today’s 16th arrondissement. The plan was called by its opponents Folie de Grangeur (the splendor of folly). However, the plan was not implemented and the blame, as Heinrich Heine said, lies with Napoleon’s teacher at the school in Briançon for not telling him that Russia was very cold in winter.
By the way, on June 23, 1940, a day after the signing of France's surrender to Nazi Germany, early in the morning, Adolf Hitler, may his name be erased, paid a brief visit to Paris. Here is a photo of him on the balcony of the Trocadero against the backdrop of Eiffel TowerHe then visited Napoleon's tomb, a kind of reciprocal visit to the visit Napoleon made on October 14, 1806, after defeating the Prussians at Jena and Auerstätt, and standing by the tomb, he declared a tribute to the dead emperor.
He ordered the bones of Napoleon's son, the Roi de Rome, to be transferred from Vienna to the Dome des Invalides so that the son, who had died in 1831, could be reunited with his father. Indeed, on December 15, 1940, exactly one hundred years after Napoleon's funeral, his son's coffin was transferred to Paris.
Other places related to Napoleon on the Left Bank of Paris that were not included in this itinerary
Hotel de Sillery, 13 quai Conti
Here lived the Permont family, with whom the young Bonaparte used to stay when he was on leave from his military regiment, and whose daughter, Laure, would later marry General Junot, a friend of Napoleon, and become the Duchesse d'Abrantes, best known for the embarrassing and controversial memoirs she left behind.
Pont des Arts (Bridge of Arts)
This bridge, which connects the palace The Louvre and the Academy building, was built by order of Napoleon in 1804 and was the first metal bridge in Paris. If you would like to read more about it, you are welcome to enter the article The Story of Von des Aers and the Collège de France or the Right to First Look at Paris.