Malmaison, 2

Continuing our visit to the bad house...

Assorted busts and paintings of N from the Consul
days

Gorgeous table with official portrait of the Emperor in the center
and inlaid portraits of various relatives; nepotism was evidently
not against the Napoleonic Code, with one brother serving as King
of Spain, another in the Netherlands, others in Italy; also assorted
in-laws elsewhere in Europe; sort of a Round Table

Empress Josephine Among the Children, Lafonde, 1806 [not her
own children]

Portrait of Empress Josephine by Gerard

In what is now called the Josephine Room

Interesting swan chairs; 2nd Empire, we think; or 
possibly 3rd or 4th

Vermay's Marie Stuart, Queen of Scotland, Receiving Her Death
Sentence from Parliament; owned by Josephine's daughter Hortense

Empress' bedroom

The Beauharnais family, into which Josephine originally married;
both she and her husband were imprisoned in the Terror; he was
executed but she was not and was released later

Malmaison's real treasure, other than the David and
Gerard paintings, is the collection of N's personal
items from his exile and imprisonment on St. Helena;
above is the plan for Longwood, the estate he was
confined to; rather like an English country house,
except for the heat, humidity, mold, isolation...

Furnishings from Longwood

The box says "dessert"; doesn't everyone have landscape-
painted travel dessert dishes for the occasional exile?

N's boots and Dr. Scholl inserts

Comfy chair

But for the confinement, he was able to live well, at least by any
normal standard; wrote his memoirs, entertained guests, attempted
to learn English so he could keep up with world affairs; he was not
permitted French newspapers

Facsimile of a drawing by Vernet, of N in 1825 on
St. Helena; note the Panama hat has replaced the
bicorne; descriptions from 1812 had already described
him as overweight with a pronounced paunch

Always on campaign

Death-mask, the first of several made; the cause of
death, at 51, remains a matter of controversy; probably
arsenic poisoning, although it is unclear whether the
arsenic naturally occurred in his diet or otherwise...so
I have read

Happier times...almost as if he had been photo-shopped into a 
Fragonard or Watteau painting; his last words were "the Army...
General of the Army...Josephine"

Malmaison, 1

The name really does mean "bad house" or "house of evil"--from the time in the 8th and 9th centuries when the place was a sometime hang-out for plundering Danes and other Northmen ("Vikings"). Things got better when the French king Charles the Simple [probably not what his courtiers called him], simply gave Viking king Rollo much of what is now Normandy, with the understanding that Rollo would defend the Seine (and Paris and the rest of France ) against further Viking incursions. The rest is history, especially the bits about 1066, "once more dear friends unto the breach," Saving Private Ryan, and all that. But I digress.

As First Consul in the late 1790s, Napoleon's star had risen, and he and new wife Josephine needed a summer get-away from Paris. So he acquired Malmaison, had it brought up to date, and they were there together for some good times. Briefly. Long story short is that, after the divorce, it became hers. She died in 1814, when things also were going poorly for her former husband. After Waterloo, Napoleon returned to Malmaison briefly to consider his next moves, but ended up at St. Helena, way out in the ocean, a guest of the not entirely hospitality-minded British. Malmaison came to the state years later, and it is now a museum of Napoleon and Josephine; mostly Napoleon. We thought we'd seen enough of Napoleon at Fountainebleau, but there is plenty here, too.

It was a nice day's excursion--and we have done most of the rest of Paris' day excursions--but we can't recommend Malmaison except to the most dedicated Napoleon fans. Nonetheless...

Turn here for Malmaison

We're walking the Josephine and Napoleon Trail

Helpful map...the full estate was not small

Malmaison...under the wrap and scaffolding one comes to expect over
any historic building

Central bit

Approaching the chateau

Entry tent...much of the house seemed in the 
"campaign" sort of mode

Entry

Game room, with Napoleonic-sized billiard table; Josephine loved
billiards and played regularly after dinner; seriously

An antechamber with portraits of assorted Egyptian rulers; N had
just done his Egyptian campaign

Ossian Receiving the Ghosts of French Heroes, by Anne
Louis Girodet; that Ossian? I ask; the chateau is decorated
with Napoleonic things, not exactly as N and Josephine
decorated it; with notable exceptions; much of the furniture
came from their Tuileries palace

Music room

Dining

Council room; for small meetings

The ever-present Napoleonic eagle

Library

And beyond, N's study; the cabinet on the far left conceals a secret

escape door; the desk--the real thing--was constructed so that documents

(e.g., maps of Germany, Austria, Russia...) could be quickly hidden from

prying eyes

Emperor's drawing room

The Josephine Room

Emperor's bed chamber

N as First Consul; standing before Malmaison

The Battle of the Pyramids, Louis-Francois Lejeune, 1804

David [that David] made five nearly identical versions of 
Napoleon Crossing the Alps; this is the original, at Malmaison;
muy famoso