Napoleon was a military man with simple tastes, probably most at home in his campaign camp bed (which can be seen at Les Invalides).
Napoleon normally travelled with a leopard skin rug. The one displayed at Les Invalides is original and was with Napoleon on the 1812 campaign to Russia. The leopard skin rugs were popular and feature in the Empress’ boudoir and Napoleon’s bathroom at the Grand Trianon.
A marble statue of Napoleon dressed in his coronation outfit overlooks his final resting place at Les Invalides.
He died in exile in 1821, His body was returned to France in 1840. Architect Louis Visconti created a tomb for Napoleon under the dome in the former royal chapel at Les Invalides by going six meters below ground level.
Napoleon’s surprisingly well preserved body is inside the red quartzite tomb which contains five coffins—the first in tin plate, the second in mahogany, two in lead and the final one in ebony.
The statue of Napoleon overlooking the main courtyard at Les Invalides was one of three which had been on top of the column at Place Vendôme. The original, destroyed in 1814, depicted him dressed as a Roman emperor. Louis Philippe erected this statue at the top of the column in 1833. Thirty years later when Napoleon III was in power, he replaced it with Napoleon once again in Roman garb.
