Napoleon and the Series of Coincidences
It's strange how a person, object or subject can 'follow you round' sometimes, isn't it? For instance, when you have not seen someone in years and then bump into them twice in one week, or just when you learn a new, obscure fact it seems that it is suddenly everywhere and everybody is talking about it! Recently, this is what has been happening with me and Napoleon.
I have just returned from a holiday in the Charente Maritime area of France, where we go every year, and it was here that my new 'relationship' with Napoleon began. Don't get me wrong, as far as I was aware, this area had no particular significance to the life of the French military and political leader, it's just that it was here, in an amazing shop called Noz, that the series of coincidences began....
Noz has the most amazing selection of the most weird and wonderful items I have ever known a shop have and it has become something of a tradition on the first day of our holiday to visit one of its branches in one of our two closest towns of St Jean D'Angely or Rochfort.
The stock in Noz consists of 'end of line', discontinued and surplus stock from a wide variety of outlets and therefore there is always something unusual to buy and, best of all, it is always very, very cheap! This year my purchases included: some very kitsch gift bags with angels embossed on them, some rubber shoes (for paddling on the rockier beaches of the region!), an energy drink called 'Stallion' with the ingredients listed only in Arabic and finally, to return to the subject, 3 small bronze effect busts of Napoleon.
My plan was to give one to my father-in-law, who loves anything to do with military history; to give the other to my husband to display on the dashboard of his land rover in place of a lost model of Julius Caesar that previously adorned said space, and to have the other on display at home.
So this was my first recent encounter with the 'Emperor of the French'.
The next day, browsing some leaflets picked up from the local tourist information centre, I was surprised to discover that, in 1808, returning from Bayonne, Napoleon stopped in what was then called Lower Charente (now Charente Maritime). In 1665, Rochefort was chosen by Jean-Baptiste Colbert as a place of 'refuge, defence and supply' for the French navy. Its military harbour was fortified by Louis XIVs commissary of fortifications Sebastian Le Prestre de Vauban and between 1666-1669 the king had the 'Corderie Royale' (then the longest building in Europe) constructed to make cordage for French ships of war.
It was off the coast of Rochefort, from the island of Île-d'Aix where he had spent several days hoping to flee to America, that Napoleon surrendered to Captain F. L. Maitland aboard HMS Bellerophon, in July 1815, ending the 'Hundred Days' - sometimes known as the Hundred Days of Napoleon - that marked the period between Emperor Napoleon I of France's return from exile on Elba and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815 (a period of 111 days).
This period saw the War of the Seventh Coalition, and includes the Waterloo Campaign and the Neapolitan War. Furthermore, Fort Boyard between the Île-d'Aix and the Île d'Oléron (famed as the filming location for the TV gameshow of the same name) can be seen clearly from the beach at Fouras that we visit every year and is visible in the backgound of many of our holiday 'snaps' over the years was constructed from 1801 and completed in 1857 under, yes, you've guessed it... Napoleon Bonaparte!
(Published on 14th Aug 2013 )
