The Musée de la Marine is planning a programme of events on its Brest and Toulon sites in connection with the bicentenary of Napoleon’s death from May 2021. It will also on this occasion produce a podcast on Napoleon and the Egyptian campaign.

More information on the website of the Musée national de la Marine (in French)

Updated 6 April 2021.

Programme at the Musée National de la Marine in Brest 
From May 2021

Around the Emperor’s Canot
– Guided tour: History of the Emperor’s Canot
Guided tour between the museum and the Ateliers des Capucins on the history of the famous Emperor’s Canot.
– Dramatised visit: a tour with a different mood between the museum and the Ateliers des Capucins You will discover the barge built for the inspection of the port of Antwerp by Napoleon.

Programme at the Musée National de la Marine in Toulon
From May 2021

• Napoleon Bonaparte, the Navy and Toulon
– a contextualisation showing Toulon on Bonaparte’s arrival (arsenal, prison etc.);
– the figure of Bonaparte before he became Napoleon (siege of Toulon in 1793, Egyptian expedition leaving from Toulon);
– the creation of the maritime prefectures and the arsenal of Venice, a policy of the new imperial regime;
– the return from Elba and Napoleon’s last voyage (on board Belle-Poule).

Guided tour (1h30): Napoleon Bonaparte, the Navy and Toulon
Links between Napoleon Bonaparte and the sea, we often only remember the disasters of Aboukir and Trafalgar. However, when Napoleon came to power, he put in place numerous measures. The aim was to restore a navy that was then in a sorry state and to make it able to compete with the British Royal Navy.
Laying the foundations of a modern navy, Napoleon developed a naval policy, traces of which remain today. A journey and a policy told through the prism of a city, Toulon, which bore witness to these endeavours on a regular basis.
Target audience: schoolchildren
By reservation

– Event programme for the general public on Wednesday 5 May 2021 on the occasion of the bicentenary of Napoleon’s death, by reservation

– Flash visit (20 mins): From Bonaparte to Napoleon, an epic of Toulon
Zoom in on the links woven between the arsenal-city of Toulon and the exceptional destiny of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Target audience: all ages
Schedule: from May 2021, one Sunday a month at 11:30 am, alternating with the other thematic flash visits offered by the museum.

Digital programme > Podcast
21-22 May 2021
The Toulon site will produce, for the month of May, a podcast on Bonaparte and the Egyptian campaign (1798), in partnership with the Murex Festival, the first festival of digital and creative cultures in Toulon. This festival will take place on 21 and 22 May 2021.

GENERAL INFORMATION

List of partners of “2021 Année Napoléon”.

Calendar of Events.

Follow the special Instagram account for “2021 Année Napoléon” events.

Follow the Fondation Napoléon’s Facebook page in English.

Follow the Fondation Napoléon on Twitter.

Consult the page of the partner publishers and their published or republished works
on the occasion of the bicentenary of Napoleon’s death.

Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter (French or English).

PrEsentation OF THE musée national de la Marine

A French public administrative institution under the supervision of the Ministry of the Armed Forces, the Musée National de la Marine is located on seven different sites in France: in Paris at the Palais de Chaillot (closed until 2022 for renovation) and in the ports of Brest, Rochefort (2 sites), Toulon, as well as in Dugny (93) with its conservation and resource centre.
At once a museum of art and history, of science and technology, of human adventure and popular tradition, The French National Maritime Museum aims to reinvent itself as a major contemporary maritime cultural site, a place of reference open to the world as well as to its own time, a forum for meeting and exchanging ideas on the major issues facing the “blue planet”.

website of the Musée national de la Marine (in French)