Visiting Josephine at Malmaison

My second visit to Malmaison was on March 26, 2022 and the first was in August, 2014, when I took the view above. The garden façade below was taken last March. You can easily see the difference in the foliage between early spring and late summer.

Joséphine de Beauharnais (1763–1814) was the first wife of Napoléon Bonaparte (1769-1821), and first Empress of the French. Her first husband Alexandre de Beauharnais was beheaded during the Reign of Terror; she was imprisoned until  after Alexandre’s execution. Napoleon, slightly younger than she was, fell madly in love with Josephine and married her in 1796. While he was away fighting, Josephine purchased the chateau (built in the 17thCentury) in 1799 and used it as her retreat from life in the Tuileries Palace. In this charming country house, she could cultivate her roses and enjoy peaceful solitude or host intimate soirees and picnics with chosen guests visiting her and her husband. Napoleon was often away on military campaigns. Please remember to click on the small pictures for full versions. Below, left, early spring camellias; one of Josephine's portraits in a salon; many more are found elsewhere in the chateau.

Above, left, the dining room; right, the library.
       Napoleon, though he was as unfaithful to her as she was to him, loved her until he died. She had been forced to divorce him in so that he could marry another younger woman and beget an heir. After Josephine's death and after he was defeated the second time and was about to be sent to the remote South Atlantic island of St. Helena, Napoleon returned to Malmaison for a bittersweet stay. It is reported that Josephine's name was on his dying lips. 
    Below, a portrait of Thomas Jefferson; right, a rather more grandiose portrait of Napoleon by Jacques-Louis David, c.1801.​

Above, the couple in coronation robes; Left, Josephine by David; Right, Napoleon as Emperor by Francois Gerard, c.1804
      Josephine was born on a sugar plantation on the French Caribbean island of Martinique. She loved the tropical flowers and had a life-long interest in collecting plants and gardening.
   Below left, Napoleon's Bed Chamber; right, a shaving stand actually belonging to Josephine's son from her first marriage, Prince Eugene de Beauharnais.

Above left, Josephine's Bed Chamber; right, her boudoir.
    Below, a selection of the roses on display in 2014 in  Josephine's former gardens, now greatly reduced but nevertheless impressive.

Ironically, though Napoleon's second wife Marie Louise of Austria, did present him with a son, the King of Rome (1811-1832), it was Josephine whose bloodlines coursed through European royalty for many generations. Her son, Eugene, and daughter, Hortense, from her first marriage to Alexandre de Beauharnais. both had descendants on thrones in France, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Belgium. Napoleon II, King of Rome, was brought up mainly in Austria, and he died unmarried at age 21 of tuberculosis. His cousin, son of Hortense, became Napoleon III some years later.
      Next, Back to London.