Reuil-Malmaison Chateau outside Paris (France) - 1 : Napoleon and Josephine's Country Estate by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting the Reuil-Malmaison Château outside Paris (France): Napoleon and Josephine’s Country Estate by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

The Reuil-Malmaison Château belonged to Josephine Beauharnais, the wife of Napoleon Bonaparte and Empress of France.

Napoleon liked going to Reuil-Malmaison, because Josephine had more relaxed etiquette at this château than in the Parisian salons.

Josephine was from the West Indies in the Caribbean, which is much hotter than France.  The fashion in this region tended to be lighter – in fabric and in color to deal with the heat.  Light colors reflect the sun rather than absorb it like black clothing. 

Light black garments might have been worn over clothing to do marketing and protect clothing, but generally clothes were not as constricting and hair was kept off the shoulders and neck to keep perspiration down in the West Indies (Caribbean).

Before visiting the Château, my husband Laurent, toddler Florence, and I visited the Parc de Bois-Préau nearby to just see what was in the park.  There was an aristocratic event going on:  a fox hunting dog show.

Five musicians in red waistcoats wandered around and played their circular hunting horns among the crowd.  Florence enjoyed running around the lawns.

We eventually made our way back to the Château and took a guided tour.  Josephine’s home was decorated in First Empire Style – lots of Egyptian motifs bathed in gold.

Florence squirmed during the visit, but I held her hand and stayed in back of the group in case Florence started chattering.  She liked looking at the gold Egyptian busts of the Sphinx on the chairs.

My favorite room was Napoleon’s recreation room, because it looks like the inside of a tent albeit an imperial one with lots of gold tassels.

Josephine’s red velvet bedroom had an octagonal mirror above the bed.  The general color scheme at Reuil-Malmaison is gold and black.  (The color scheme at Versailles is silver and white as a point of contrast.)

After visiting Reuil-Malmaison, we went to Versailles and let Florence splash her hands in the Neptune Fountain.

Then, we walked a kilometer to see Marie-Antoinette’s hamlet where she pretended to be a peasant with her ladies-in-waiting.

Marie-Antoinette’s hamlet is made up of a village of thatched roof farmhouses that gave us many cute photo opportunities for Florence.  Florence especially liked petting the sheep in the children’s zoo.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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The Chateau at Reuil-Malmaison - 2 - by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

The Château at Reuil-Malmaison: Visiting Empress Josephine’s Château outside Paris (France) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

The Empress Josephine’s home at the Château Rueil-Malmaison was twenty minutes away from my apartment in the Hauts-de-Seine outside Paris (France).

My husband Laurent and I put baby Florence in her car seat and set out for Rueil-Malmaison.

We took the guided tour at Rueil-Malmaison.  I was occupied with Florence, but was able to catch the following bit of information:

-Napoleon was one of the first people in France to use art as propaganda.  He opened the Louvre to the public.  It was only open to the aristocrats and royals before.

-The Empress Josephine wore 6 to 7 dresses in one day and would sometimes buy the same dress twice.

The French would say that she was “rolled in flour” for buying the same dress twice.

After the visit to the Château, we spent three hours relaxing in the Château’s park.  I went from rose bush to rose bush, inhaling the delightful perfumes of each bush without knowing that we were in one of the world’s most famous rose gardens.

I held Florence up to the taller rose bushes and let her smell the roses, too, making sure she did not grab the thorny stems.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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