Fontainebleau was the only royal residence to have been continuously used for seven centuries. During the French Revolution it became a school and later Napoleon converted it to a military school.
On becoming Emperor, Napoleon had the chateau restored. He had decided all the royal chateaux would now become imperial chateaux.
The refurbishment was completed in a few months to have it ready to accommodate the Pope who came to Paris at the end of 1804 to attend Napoleon’s coronation as Emperor.
Napoleon met the Pope at Fontainebleau, his last stop on the way. They stayed at the chateau for three days before going on to Paris. (The pope would later return there as Napoleon’s prisoner between 1812 and 1814 when he occupied the sumptuous former apartments of Anne of Austria, Louis XIV’s mother but that’s another story)
Napoleon did not like the public performance of the former kings’ bedchamber. He converted the King’s bedroom into a throne room and set up his official bedchamber in the former private apartments of Louis XVI.
Next to his official bedchamber, Napoleon had a smaller bedchamber which doubled as an office. He commissioned a special mechanical desk with a top which could slide across in an instant. A small bed was placed there. It was the same sort of bed used on the field of battle, covered in green taffeta. Napoleon had a small salon next to this study/bedchamber. He signed his abdication in 1814 in this small salon (the original furniture including the table he signed on are still there).
Beyond that, Napoleon had a bathroom installed. The tin plated copper bath was covered in muslin. It is original, as well as the mahogany chairs.
In 1810, Napoleon decided to extend his private apartment, taking over the rooms on the ground floor beneath his official apartment on the “noble” (first) floor.
He moved the bed he had on the first floor in his official bedchamber .
The bed and chairs which were placed in the new private bedroom downstairs were originally at the Tuileries palace.
They are covered in velvet and reflect the taste for Egyptian style at the time.
Napoleon’s ground floor apartment could be directly accessed by a spiral staircase which led to his new personal library.
Napoleon was a big reader and took books in chests with him when he went to battle. Each of his residences had a library. The books are original from the time of Napoleon in 1810. The Fontainebleau library doubled as an office. Napoleon’s private secretary, Baron de Méneval would take dictation standing behind the desk.
Napoleon had employed Bourrienne, a school friend from the military school in Champagne as his private secretary when he was first put in charge of the Army of Italy. When Bourrienne was compromised in a fraudulent business transaction, Napoleon replaced him with 24 year old Claude-François de Méneval in 1802.
Méneval travelled with Napoleon wherever he went. Napoleon made him a baron in 1810.
He remained loyal to Napoleon right through to the end. Napoleon regarded him as a “treasure”. In his will Napoleon remembered him as zealous, discreet and prepared to work at any hour. He said: “He never gave me anything but satisfaction and was always agreeable and I loved him very much.” He left him 100,000 francs. Méneval lived in a chateau and became the local mayor.
He was in Paris at the ceremony returning Napoleon’s remains from Saint Helena in 1840.
