Napoleon - Return of Ashes from Saint-Helena

In May 1840, almost twenty years after Napoleon Died on Saint-Helena, Louis-Philippe - the last King of France - asked England to return the body of Napoleon. Louis-Philippe sent his own son the Prince de Joinville on a mission to supervise the return.

By the end of November, the ship "la Belle Poule" arrived at Cherbourg in Normandy and right there, the "Napoleon mania" enflammed the French people! From the Normandy coast to Paris, hundreds of thousands of people rushed to catch a glimpse of the carriage bringing the Emperor back to France.

When it reached Paris in December, the temperature had dropped down to -10° Celcius (14° Farenheit) which is way below normal... Yet, in Paris alone, Napoleon drew over one million French people...

The emperor's coffin passed under the Arc de Triomphe he had commissioned but never saw fully built and moved towards the Invalides, the wounded soldiers' hospital.