55. What goes up must come down: The history of the Vendôme column.

Today, we’re heading to a monument that is both extremely vertical and surprisingly controversial. A monument that has been built up, knocked down, rebuilt - the Vendôme column. Today,  Napoleon, like a true Parisian in this very chic neighbourhood,  spends his  time looking down its nose, unimpressed with everything around him but how did he get there and why was it so controversial? To find that out you will have to come with me….. 

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Place Vendôme

Louis XIV at Louvre

Details of column

The Commune destroy the column.

Napoleon as the 'Little Corporal'

Courbet

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• Sources

  Place Vendôme - Wikipedia

  Vendôme Column - napoleon.org

  The Project Gutenberg eBook of L’assommoir, by Émile Zola

  "The Vendôme Column" under the microscope, published by Norma

  https://1870to1918.wordpress.com/2014/02/24/gustave-courbet-and-the-vendome-column

  https://www.thefrenchjewelrypost.com/en/it-joailliers/vendome-column-book-editions-norma/

  https://www.napoleon.org/en/magazine/publications/napoleon-the-story-of-the-little-corporal/

  https://www.ebooksgratuits.com/blackmask/hugo_annee_terrible.pdf

  • "Napoleon: A Life" by Andrew Roberts

  • "Napoleon and the Legacy of Rome" by Timothy J. McNeese

  Music

  Pixabay

  Blue Dot Sessions

  The Owl, Dance Nostalgique