This morning we caught the bus (long trip) to Rueil-Malmaison, a small town-like place that is also near the edge of Paris. Josephine (Napo's wife) lived there for significant periods; when they were married Napoleon spent a lot of time there too. The area is called malmaison because they used to send lepers there.
we went to the eglise where Napoleon and Josephine used to go every sunday. Her tomb is there - dedicated to her by her children from her marriage before Napo - and so is the tomb of either her son or daughter, can't remember which.
By the way, did you know Queen Margarette - Frederick's mother, as in Prince Fred and Princess Mary, our aussie/denmark lovebirds - is an ancestress of Josephine?
Anyway, we got told the story of Josephine's life - she was originally called Rose - was married, husband abandoned her, she managed to survive by getting with all of these men; very charming; one of the leading botanists of the time etc etc. Anyway, Napoleon eventually divorced her because she had early-onset menopause and couldn't have any children by him; he wanted a dynasty; also she blatantly cheated on him early on in their marriage and most unfortunately for her that knowledge became public.
After the church we went to Le Chateux de Malmaison which was the "maison intime" of Josephine both when she and Napo were married and she was also given it after Napo divorced her. It has Napo's rooms in it - quite fascintating, decorated with all these Roman writers and generals as well as greek - many books, etc. Her rooms had been re-decorated after Napo divorced her - Napo's rooms remained the same. Her wardrobe wasn't as big as i imagined it would be. She had two bedrooms - one racy red one (for entertaining ;)) and another white/gold one for sleeping. She actually created heaps of breeds of roses (if that's what you call them - breeds). That might interest Grandma if anyone wants to tell her - her rooms were covered in pictures of roses.
Then we went into the city, had lunch, went to l'Hotel de Ville. It didn't interest me as much as i had hoped mainly because when they rebuilt it after la Commune burnt it in 1871, they weren't historically faithful - i know it's hard, the thing's been around forever, but they could have at least built it the way that it was just before they burnt it - anyway it's been redecorated to reflect the Republique, with the words "égalité, fraternité, liberté" written everywhere, and lots of paintings and sculptures of celebration (presumably of the republic).
Then we went with an to get icecream, and we went home. The others caught a bus straight away and left me at Sevres to get stuff from the supermarket (flavoured water). I was feeling pretty sick - i still am. Came back on the bus myself, and dinner is soon.
