PARIS (AP) – France’s national army museum has recreated the home where Napoleon lived his final years, bringing furniture and belongings from the remote Atlantic Island of St. Helena to central Paris for the first time since he was exiled there 200 years ago.
The exhibition that opens Wednesday and ends July 24 is a unique occasion to discover the atmosphere of the Longwood house, a damp rat-infested place where the Emperor spent his last years as a prisoner of the British government, surrounded by books and souvenirs.
In total, 240 pieces of art, furniture items, objects and documents are exhibited, from Napoleon’s bathtub to his camp bed and some clothes including his uniform and his famous hat, the “bicorne.”
The museum ticket also gives access to Napoleon’s tomb at Les Invalides.