Napoleon's return from Elba to Paris on 20 March 1815 and how contemporaries reacted

19 March 1815: French army officers salute King Louis XVIII.

20 March 1815: the same officers fall on their knees before Napoleon.

Napoleon's return from exile on the island of Elba to Paris was a veritable triumph. The newspapers modestly saw off the king, who had left the capital, and solemnly greeted the emperor. Eyewitnesses described the triumph as something supernatural and wrote that to see Napoleon in Paris once more was like beholding the Resurrection of Christ.

Report a translation error

September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

In the finale of the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, the Golden Ball is told: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to offend nobody, but the digest really does come free of charge. So, here is the main business of the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

Napoleon's return from Elba to Paris on 20 March 1815 and how contemporaries reacted

Read more

September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s