Last Day in Paris- Chateau de Malmaison

We are back in Paris for our last day. We are choosing not to go into Paris which is 45 minutes away from the docking or go on the tour of Versailles since we saw it in March.
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We took a tour of the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte's final residence before his exile.  Napoleon ‘s wife Josephine purchased this manor in 1799 and served as the seat of Napoleon's French government form 1800-1802.  After the couple’s divorce, she collected an annual pension of 5 million francs and kept the house until her death at the age of 51 in 1814. Josephine could never have children.   Napoleon  married again to Mary Louise.               

                                 Entrance way. The magic of paint to look like tile work.

                                                           Dining room

 Parlor with Josephine's portrait hanging on the wall  She never smiled because her teeth were black from all the sugar cane she ate as a child in the Caribbean.

                                                                 Resting room

                                       
During his dictatorial reign, Napoleon Bonaparte, worked to expand France's territory and had his troops in constant war. He was elected "Emperor of the French" in 1804 and by 1813/1814 his army dwindled and he was losing his followers.
By March of 1814 a coalition of European countries led by Great Britain and Russia entered the city and the Parisian government surrendered to the coalition forces. This left Napoleon out of power. To make sure Bonaparte remained out of way, the coalition drew up the Treaty of Fontainebleau which contained 21 articles one of which barred his heirs from holding office and banished him to the Tuscan island of Elba.

This is done in petitepoint which is a type of needlepoint but much smaller and finer.  I would not like to tackle a project like this. I would have to live many life times to complete it.  But then again they had help.

   She loved dresses and it was said she had 985 dresses and 541 pairs of shoes.

This was the forerunner of the shredder. If you were reading papers that you didn't want anyone to
see you would slip them into the top and they would disappear.

                                                                 Billiard room

                                                        Council room

                    Music room If you look closely, you can see a harp in the right hand corner.

The library. In 1803 Napoleon had an apartment fitted in just above one part of the Council room and the library. A hidden staircase located just behind the main staircase enabled him to make his escape to the apartment on the first floor, Napoleon lived there from June 25-28, 1815 before leaving for Isle of Elba,

We have had a great time with David and Terry but all good things must end. So we leave you with a great bottle of wine. Salute.