Napoleon Dynamite

For three days, it seemed like I couldn’t step four feet without stumbling over something Napoleon oriented. It started at the Palace of Versailles, the absolute last place in the world I expected to find him. Turns out he has a whole wing for him. After the absolute splendour of the palace there’s a room dedicated to what happened after Marie Antoinette lost her head. That means Napoleon. There’s a whole room dedicated to Napoleon, filled with a giant statue, and multiple paintings, one being a reproduction of his coronation.

Napoleon's coronation painting at Versailles

Napoleon at Versailles

There are several paintings of the man as well. Later on in the palace there is a room that commemorates France’s victory throughout time. Surprisingly, Napoleon features quite heavily here with three or four paintings of his battles. He also gets a statue in a hall of warriors and famous French men.

His image also turns up in the Louvre, where the original painting of the Coronation appears.

Look familiar?

Next, there’s Les Invalides, a military museum, which also includes Napoleon’s final resting place. This isn’t a grave. No, this is too simple for France’s only emperor. Napoleon gets a sarcophagus wrapped in tin, two layers of lead, ebony and encased in granite. It’s really quite impressive. His son, rests across from him—oddly under a statue of his father—and his brother to the side. The grave is the biggest attraction in an otherwise impressive church, that had it not housed arguably France’s greatest general, which be a nice attraction. Along with the tomb there are objects from Napoleon’s life including his notes on the Wealth of Nations, his love letters to first wife Josephine and a pocket watch that originally belonged to Louis XIV.

Napoleon's tomb

"Napoleon, Emperor of the French"

The Church at Invalides