Sunday, 4 October 2026

Azure standard in Napoleon's dressing room at Rambouillet resembles the flag of Kazakhstan

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Azure standard in Napoleon's dressing room at Rambouillet resembles the flag of Kazakhstan

I recalled Napoleon's lavatory in the Château de Rambouillet, which he rebuilt for his own needs and restored after the ravages of the Revolution. Today the palace is used for the highest affairs of state. The interiors are beautiful. And in the lavatory, with its medallion by Jean Vassereau and paintings by Godard, there hangs on the wall a blue, or rather azure, standard with a golden eagle in a wreath at its centre. This banner is strikingly like the flag of present-day Kazakhstan, in colour, in composition and in idea: the same eagle, only in profile, almost the same solar disc and precisely the same hue. I take the opportunity to send greetings to all Kazakhstanis and to remind them of the deep connections and laws of world heraldry and vexillology, which is what the science of flags is called

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