In the previous episode we looked at how Napoleon ended up on the island of Elba and why he left it. Now that we know the reasons and have met the people involved, it’s time to start the long march to Paris…
Map of the Route Napoléon
The start of the Route Napoléon: trouble in Cannes
The force lands at Golfe-Juan. Here’s what the beach looks like today in the summer season. The landing spot is on the shore, where there is now a marina, and it’s marked with a stone. Back then it was open beach land planted with olive trees. Today it’s the town’s main plaza. If you cross the road, taking care not to get run over, you’ll reach the corner by the train station, where you’ll find a sign: “Here begins the Route Napoléon.”
What’s happening on the coast at that same moment: Brigadier General Cuneo, commander of the 87th Regiment stationed nearby in Antibes, a march of one or two kilometers away, had set out that very morning for a picnic on the Île Sainte-Marguerite, across from Cannes. His deputy, Colonel Orréano, a Corsican who had sworn loyalty to the king and had no sympathy for Napoleon, took his place.
Napoleon sends a detachment of twenty-three guardsmen under the command of an officer, Lamouret, to Antibes, carrying the proclamations he had prepared, expecting the soldiers in the town to rush and join his ranks. Orréano opens the town gate, lets them in, shuts the gate behind them and throws them in jail. Not the best start.
After a brief wait on the beach, the force continues toward the town of Cannes, then a small village built on the slope of a hill topped by a monastery. Napoleon camps well outside the village, knowing its residents are hostile to him. Back then it was open land. Today it’s a main street in Cannes called “Boulevard du Bivouac Napoléon,” just a few dozen meters from the hall where the Cannes Film Festival is held. A stone plaque on the wall of a church there marks the spot where Napoleon spent the first night of the march.
Up at 5:30 a.m. before sunrise, the force makes its way up the mountain, a 16-kilometer march to Grasse.
Grasse
Cambronne goes ahead of Napoleon with the vanguard. He reaches the Marquis de Gourdon, governor of the Var region, who is stationed in Grasse, and demands that he order 5,000 rations prepared. He deliberately exaggerates the number to create the impression that the force that landed is four times larger than it is.
“In whose name are you placing this order?” asks the marquis.
“In the name of Emperor Napoleon,” Cambronne answers.
“We have our own ruler, and he is the one we love,” says the marquis,
and Cambronne replies the way only Cambronne can:
“Mr. Mayor, I haven’t come to talk politics, but to demand the rations, because my force is about to arrive any moment.”
That was enough for the marquis, who prepared what was asked and fled the town.
Napoleon plans to have breakfast at the Hôtel de Dauphine, but the furious reception from the residents reminds him of his journey to Elba the year before, and he sets up for breakfast instead on a plaza outside the town overlooking the stunning view of the Bay of Cannes.
To this day this plaza is used for picnics, and a large sign reminds visitors who dined there before them.
While he’s eating, two older men approach him, one who works in the perfume industry and the other a farmer, and they present him with a bouquet of violets. Napoleon is moved. This is the first show of affection he’s received. During Napoleon’s exile on Elba, violets had become the symbol of resistance against the Bourbons, to the point that the authorities saw them as a sign of rebellion. It’s said that when Napoleon left for Elba he said he would return when the violets bloomed. From then until today, violets have been associated with Napoleon’s return.
Saint-Vallier-de-Thiey
The next stop is Saint-Vallier-de-Thiey, a 10-kilometer march. The road is narrow and they’re forced to abandon the four cannons and the carriage. Napoleon, who began his career as an artilleryman, looks like a man in mourning, like Samson with his hair cut off.
Napoleon sits to rest under a beech or a sycamore tree. A man approaches Napoleon carrying a tray with a soft drink on it, and Bertrand jumps in and orders: “You drink first.” The fear of poisoning is great, and Napoleon only drinks after the man takes the first sip. The spot where Napoleon sat is now marked with a monument.
They continue. The destination is Séranon, located 1,000 meters above sea level, a march of 25 kilometers. The path is narrow and slippery from the melting snow.
The Polish horsemen suffer the most. They have no horses and must carry their heavy saddles on their backs, on top of the discomfort of marching in the stiff, greased-leather riding trousers.
Napoleon himself marched on foot, leaning on a walking stick with one hand while, on his other side, Major Raoul, Premier Officier d’Ordonnance, a tough officer, walked beside him, ready to support him whenever he threatened to fall.
A guard officer named Laborde notes that because of the state of the road, the column stretches out as long as a column of twenty thousand soldiers would on a normal road.
Ali notes that the soldiers walk as if on an outing, without discipline. They have no fear of an enemy. They’re on home soil, and the population is extremely sparse.
Indeed, Napoleon chose this difficult mountain route specifically to minimize contact with the hostile population of Provence.
Séranon
After more than fifty kilometers from Cannes, the column reaches Séranon, soaked, frozen, and with Napoleon catching a cold.
Napoleon is received by the local priest, Abbé Chéris, who offers him two eggs. Napoleon eats. Eggs are safe, after all. The priest tells him about a relative of his, General François, who left his bones in Egypt along with about nine thousand other soldiers. He tells him his mother lives in Séranon. Napoleon asks to see her, but he can’t manage to connect with her because she won’t stop mourning her son. He orders Marchand to give her and the priest, whom he likes, 25 gold Napoléons from the small chest Marchand carries with him, a very large sum. To the priest he says that a bishop’s miter would suit him better than the flat hat of a country priest.
In Séranon, Napoleon will spend the night of March 2 (the night of Thursday).
Castellane
Once again they wake before dawn and make their way to Castellane, a march of twenty-five kilometers. Castellane is the administrative capital of the Var region. Already from a distance you can make out the cliff looming over the town that lies at its foot. On top of the cliff stands the church of Notre-Dame-du-Roc. Napoleon meets with the mayor, Monsieur de Francol, one of his loyal supporters who had been removed from office because he refused to swear loyalty to the king. But since his replacement has not yet arrived, he’s still serving in the role.
Napoleon dispatches three messengers: Dr. Emery, a military doctor admired and highly talented, is sent to Grenoble, his hometown, to make contact with a local supporter, a glove maker named Dumoulin, to prepare the ground for Napoleon’s arrival.
Another highly talented man, Pons d’Hérault, who had served as the man in charge of the iron mines on Elba and had known Napoleon since the siege of Toulon back in 1793, is sent to Marseille to meet with Marshal Masséna, commander of the French army in the south, who had sworn loyalty to the Bourbons, and to win his support. Masséna is capable of stopping the march easily if he chooses to.
A third messenger is sent to Lavalette in Paris.
The force continues climbing. Two mountain passes over 1,000 meters high: Col de Toulanne and Col de Léaque, with the destination being a town called Barrême.
The town of Barrême
Cambronne arrives in Barrême ahead of the main force. He enters the largest house in town, the home of the local judge, Tartanson, walks into the kitchen and asks the lady of the house:
“What’s for dinner?”
“It’s Friday today,” the lady of the house answers, “so there’s lentil soup, an omelet, and cod.”
“Let me taste it,” says Cambronne. “Ah, very good.”
And he posts a guard over the pots so no one touches them until the Emperor arrives.
When Napoleon arrives, he climbs up to the second floor in his boots. The householders stand in a line to receive him. As usual, he opens with a barrage of questions:
“Are you the owner of this house?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What’s your name?”
“Tartanson, sir.”
“And who is the young man standing beside you?”
“This is my son, sir.”
“What does he do?”
“He collects taxes.”
Napoleon is satisfied with that and summons the mayor, telling him he wants to buy up all the carriages in town suited for two horses.
Afterward he goes into the room set aside for him, calls in the householders, and launches into a monologue:
I haven’t come alone. More forces have landed in Provence, cavalry, artillery. They’re moving along the main route, and we’ll join up with them. The army is with me. The Bourbons will no longer rule, but they have nothing to fear for their safety.
Judge Tartanson gathers his courage and says:
“The army may be with you, sir, but the people are not, at least not in this part of the country.”
Napoleon ignores his remark and continues:
“Within two days, the Bourbons will hear of my arrival. My wife and son are on their way to Paris. On March 20 I will sleep in the Tuileries Palace.”
Then he turns to young Tartanson and says:
“Well then, you’re coming with us. You’ll be one of us. I won’t forget you, I’ll take care of your future. You’ll receive a high rank.”
Young Tartanson exchanges frightened glances with his father and answers haltingly:
“I, sir, would serve France better from here.”
Napoleon wonders to himself: “Is he a royalist? Is he being cautious? Is he just shy?”
Then his attention shifts to the little boy clinging to his father’s legs, the young Tartanson’s younger brother, and he asks:
“What’s his name?”
“Alphonse, sir.”
“How old is he?”
“Four.”
Tears well up in Napoleon’s eyes and he murmurs:
“Just like the King of Rome,” his son, whose soul he longs for, and who, in exactly seventeen days, on March 20, will turn four years old.
The precious ladle
Napoleon dines with Drouot and Bertrand and retires to his room, where his two servants, Ali and Noverraz, lie across the two doorways. The house is packed with officers from end to end, some even sleeping on the staircase. Three hours of sleep are enough for Napoleon. He wakes at three, drinks coffee from the thermos he carries with him.
At five he eats meat soup and chats with Tartanson. He asks him about the state of tax collection, about residents’ reactions to the confiscation of land from the monastery at nearby Senez, and so on. Tartanson notices that Napoleon never says “the king,” only “the Bourbons,” and never uses the title “Royal.”
At six the townspeople crowd at the door of the house, wanting to see the Emperor. One of them wears a white cockade on his coat. Cambronne tears it off without a word. At seven, Napoleon tries to mount his horse but struggles and needs help. Witnesses get the impression that he’s wearing a protective vest under his clothes, out of fear of an assassination attempt.
Left behind in the house is a sort of strainer or silver ladle bearing the letter “N.” An item that will become the family’s most prized possession, passed down from generation to generation to this day.
When Napoleon visited the house, it was bigger. Today only half of it remains, since the other half was torn down to widen the road.
Lucky for me, when I arrived at the house, so did a Napoleon reenactor, right at that moment, accompanied by his Polish cavalrymen, and the townspeople greeted him with cries of “Long live the Emperor!” But when the real Napoleon visited there, no such cries were heard.
Digne-les-Bains
The next destination: Digne-les-Bains, a 20-kilometer march. A spa town. The waters stay at a constant temperature of 42 degrees. Napoleon’s sister, Pauline, had visited there six months earlier.
The road is difficult, passing through Bédoin, Chaudon, and La Clape. In Chaudon, Napoleon sits down to eat on a rock, holding a loaf of bread under his arm and a piece of chicken in his hand. The seat is uncomfortable. Ever since, the spot has been called “Le mal assis” (the uncomfortable seat). Anyone visiting Grenoble, and not only Grenoble, might come across a restaurant by this name. We’re pretty sure only you and the restaurant owner will know where the name comes from.
At La Clape, another food stop. An innkeeper serves Napoleon a two-egg omelet. When he’s finished, Napoleon asks to pay and asks: “How much?” The innkeeper answers: “That’ll be two gold Napoléons.” A wildly inflated price. “Oh, I see eggs are very rare around here,” Napoleon replies. “It’s not the eggs that are rare, it’s emperors,” the innkeeper answers. I’m not sure this incident actually happened as described, but there’s a grain of truth in it, since what made Napoleon unique was that ordinary people, and especially ordinary soldiers, could talk to him “eye to eye.” It wasn’t for nothing that Napoleon was nicknamed Le Petit Caporal.
On the way to Digne, one of Puyrusse’s gold mules stumbled on the narrow path and fell off a cliff, carrying two chests. Each contains 200,000 francs in coins. Puyrusse can’t retrieve the chests alone. He runs to Digne, which the force has meanwhile reached, and returns with a few soldiers. One chest remains intact. The other breaks open. They gather up the coins, but 32,520 Napoléons are missing and never found. People still search for those coins there to this day.
Digne receives Napoleon with coldness and indifference. Napoleon begins to worry:
Why this silence, why this restraint from the residents, who watch me as I pass and escort me to the inn Le Petit Paris without making a sound?
He enters Digne through a very narrow street, Rue Mère de Dieu. People watch the soldiers pass from windows with shutters painted blue and red, as is customary in Provence. One of the women turns to him and asks: “Tell me, who is Napoleon?” The Emperor answers her: “Madame, c’est moi.”
In Digne, Napoleon hears that Pons d’Hérault has been arrested by Masséna in Marseille.
He writes to his wife, Marie-Louise:
My good Marie.
I have written to you many times.
I am sending you someone who will tell you that everything is going well.
I am met with admiration, and I am in control of things.
All I am missing is you, my good Louise, and our son.
Napoleon.
Napoleon is worried. Where are the cheering crowds he expected and had “built” his plan on? His entire plan rested on support from the army and mass support from the public. Where are they?
As they leave the town, someone finds a wooden bed ornament shaped like an eagle. They stick it on a pole and raise it at the head of the column.
The road is easier now, wide and flat, running along the Bléone river, which merges with the Durance river further along.
Napoleon rides in a cabriolet. Later he’ll switch to a larger carriage, a chariot. Behind him is Puyrusse with the gold mules, and the Corsican soldiers bring up the rear.
Sisteron
The vanguard is about thirty kilometers ahead of them, heading for Sisteron. This is a key town in the march, as it sits on the Durance river, a wide river with a strong current, crossed by only a single bridge, right by the town.
The big fear is that the local commander, Lovardo, will blow up the bridge and delay the force’s advance, giving army battalions from Marseille enough time to arrive and block the continuation of the march. Napoleon is worried. He spends the night at a camp set up in the spacious garden of the Château de Malijaï.
Meanwhile, the vanguard reaches Sisteron. The civilian governor, Marquis de Gombert, is militant and tries to organize resistance, but when Cambronne reaches him and demands five thousand rations be prepared, the governor is more worried about who will pay for them. Cambronne tosses him his purse and says: “Pay yourself.”
The bridge is not blown up. Lovardo didn’t have enough explosives, or enough nerve. The next morning Napoleon advances toward Sisteron, and when he sees through his telescope that the bridge is intact, he says cheerfully: “Voilà messieurs, nous sommes à Paris” (we are in Paris, gentlemen).
But the road is still long and holds its dangers.
In Sisteron, Napoleon dines at the inn Bras d’Or. He notices the governor wearing the white cockade and advises him to take it off, saying his soldiers might be insulted by it.
He speaks with the deputy governor, M. Bignon, whom he takes a liking to.
“What are people saying about my arrival?”
“They are very surprised, sir.”
“Yes, but would they want to see me back on the throne?”
“I think so, sir, if they don’t fear conscription and other hardships.”
“Yes, I know, I made some mistakes. But I’ve come to fix them. My people will be pleased.”
“But surely you’ll face more obstacles on the road to Paris,” Bignon presses.
“No! In Gap I have soldiers! In Corps I have soldiers. In Grenoble the army awaits me. In Lyon I have ten thousand soldiers. Not a drop of blood will be shed. Everything is coordinated with foreign powers!!”
The road to Gap
Napoleon weighs how to continue. Should he go through Gap and from there to Grenoble, or change course and bypass Gap, continuing through Valence (where he had once been posted as a young lieutenant in 1787)? He fears the governor of Gap, M. de Hammond, a tough and capable man hostile to him. He sits on the stone bench leaning against the church wall and thinks, then stands up: they’ll continue to Gap. He can’t give up on Grenoble. He expects his luck to change there.
The road to Gap, a 49-kilometer march, he’ll cover by carriage, and the force will move this time in proper military formation.
Gap lies in the Isère region (back then the Dauphiné region), which favors him. As he approaches Gap, darkness is already falling, and then he sees it: Gap lit up by hundreds, or thousands, of candles and torches. A turning point. He’s moved.
He gives a speech to the people of Gap:
Citizens, people of Gap,
Your show of feeling touches my heart.
Your prayers will be answered.
The national cause will triumph once again.”
Cries: 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 the good of France.
My return will fulfill your hopes, protect your property, and ensure equal rights among all classes!
Rights, which you enjoyed for twenty-five years!
Rights, which your forefathers longed for!!
He’ll spend the night of March 4 in Gap, at the Auberge Marchand.
Corps
The next destination: Corps, a 36-kilometer march but a difficult mountain road. They must climb to the highest mountain pass on this route, Col Bayard, over 1,200 meters, an area covered in snow.
What’s happening in Grenoble at that same time? Lieutenant General Gabriel Marchand is the military commander of the Seventh Division stationed in the region, and he has sworn loyalty to the Bourbons. A capable officer who fought in many of Napoleon’s campaigns, he knows it’s essential to prevent Napoleon from making contact with the army. Napoleon must be delayed, and in the meantime the army kept away from him. He seals off the town. He reinforces the Fifth Regiment, stationed in the town, with two more regiments: the Seventh and the Eleventh. He calls on Colonel Dellessart, commander of the Fifth Regiment, and assigns him a task: blow up the bridge known as the High Bridge (Le haut pont), located on the edge of a town called La Mure, near Corps.
This is where the second part of the article on Napoleon’s return to France ends
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