Live From Paris – Chateau de Malmaison & Gardens

Join me on a visit to the beautiful Chateau de Malmaison and Gardens created by Marie Josephe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie, better known as Josephine de Beauharnais Bonaparte.

Josephine purchased the chateau on April 21, 1799, which Napoleon had to pay for when he returned from a campaign in Italy.

After their divorce in 1809, Josephine spent the final five years of her life here enjoying her gardens until her death on May 29, 1814.

Also in this video, we visit the Eglise Saint Pierre Saint Paul where she is laid to rest.

Coming to Paris? Book a tour with me or let me plan the perfect trip just for you. www.claudinehemingway.com

all right now we’re outside and there’s very few people out here at the moment outside so but we’re going to go walk into the ancient rose garden and so she loved flowers tell you some more about that when we get out there but here you can see this is the entrance to the Chateau The Chateau that we see now is 17th century but Malone itself dates back to the 13th centuries it was first mentioned in 1244 and it was Mal Z basically means the bad house but they think that equates back to the Norman Invasion because they kind of took up this area and so that was kind of you know bad that the they taken it over so that’s where Malone comes from and again very English garden in the way that it’s done but look it and this is the perfect time to come because we have all of these roses look at these beautiful we’re going to walk out this direction and hope the groups are in staying inside the first time I came here I believe it was in the fall so I didn’t get to really see any of the Roses In Bloom look it’s so quiet look at this so Josephine purchased the property in April 21st 1799 another thing that the Napoleon movie that Ridley Scott did got wrong was about mol and so she had actually purchased it while Napoleon was away he wasn’t very pleased about that when he found out and she said oh you know I basically put a promissary note and I’m buying this place and this is where I’m going to live and this is where we will live and he came back and had to find the money to pay for it so she was the one who found this but she had over 250 varieties of roses here she had different people um that took care of it at first it was an English Gardener named Thomas Blakey and then it was a Scottish Scottish horticulturalist Alexander haveston and so he came over here and they started creating this and the poan when he to make his wife happy whenever he had his uh going all over the world that they knew at the time and he’d have them bring things back so they’d bring back um samples of flowers and trees and everything uh Malon is the first place they had eucalyptus um they also brought animals and so there was all sorts of animals at different times here including what I hope is still we could still see some of them here um but they had kangaroos here they had um Tigers they had just about every kind of animal you could even think of had been here here on the property and then it got to a point where they just really they couldn’t take care of them they didn’t have the enough people it was too expensive and so they took them to the jardan de plant which is where the zoo is which is the oldest zoo in Europe is at the jardan de plant and here as you can see beautiful Josephine right there and her roses can walk through here it’s renovating oh inaugurated May 2014 so I think we’re done let’s go look down here the Pavilion of Summer the pavon de 1790 it was a proper uh property of Jac luto D mole look at how cute that little thing is I don’t think that’s the original door oh you guys it’s he it smells heavenly out here and I love that they have the little names you know I’m from a place that’s known as the city of roses so um we have a massive Rose Garden in Portland Oregon and I used to love to go there with my grandparents when we were little my Grandpa would take us up there with like a Happy Meal from McDonald’s which was like the greatest thing ever as a kid this one is called the chapot de Napoleon it’s actually we’re kind of getting to the end of we’ve had so much rain it’s probably good this is the empress Josephine so we are getting to the end of these but Raphael Rober name for my cousin I’m sure from England see well you could imagine it it’s height of color these ones are pretty pretty oh look at this one look at that beautiful flowers so quiet oh these are I think these are more panies I think look at that guys this is the rose of the king but look at where it’s from Portland 1812 no wonder and it’s the rose of the king how about that you know I love a plaque Clementine I just like come out here and I just imagine Josephine wandering their empire style dress just wandering through the gardens I mean I’m sure that some of these are from Portland just how beautiful and quiet is this I wasn’t able to do as much in the in the inside in the Chateau as I would have wanted to to share with you just cuz there was too many people and it’s very small place and they were all the different um the Big T groups were talking and so you wouldn’t been able to really here but I talked to somebody as I left um they’re one of the directors here and they gave me their card and I’m going to be able to come out one day when nobody’s here they’ll let me come in early and I can make a video and reshare it with everybody and really get in close to all the details without people there so that’ll be very exciting so what’s this little Gard in here Chinese roses here and these pots D Rose but this is more a tropical Olive Tree look at that bird of paradise what is this little thing oh Cassie those are tomatoes mint those are definitely Tomatoes down there look at this hibiscus m uh oh here comes the but the buses so we can walk back to the Garden oh look at lemon note to South don’t come on a weekend usually when I have come out here before there’s nobody here and just so quiet and and you have the whole place to yourself look at that tree the tree is just look at these trees they just massive it’s beautiful it’s been beautiful the last few days in Paris it’s so nice but I guess we’re going to get cold again it’s going to get into the high 40s in the next few days in the morning I think after tomorrow and uh so every time I think I’m going to get those spring and summer clothes down and switch out my wardrobe I think again so there’s these great little paths in here and I believe this is the one that goes back to the Little Pond here’s the back we’ll get another good view of the back doing some work on the side here on the right so the exhibit that was in there was actually just mixed in with everything so if you stopped each each room has just a plaque there’s one plaque that kind of tells you what everything is in the room and if it had anything that had a big D on it it was something that was donated look at just so beautiful quiet they have very strange hours here they’re open from 10:00 to 12:30 and then they open again I think at 1:30 to 5:30 so if you’re going to come maybe come in the afternoon if you really want to spend some time it is small so you really the garden is open the whole time you just the Chateau itself closes so if you come come at 10:00 spend you know hour hour and a half inside and walk around the gardens we’re right on the edge of a very big Park the Monument of the prince Imperial oh here’s the Temple of love back here this is about as a doors as a dorsy as I get guys look at that and then you have the prince Imperial that’s a copy of a statue that’s actually at the orsay in marble if I hear something something rustling in this Ivy you’re never going to see anything move as fast as you will see me move no messy but we’re coming up to the little Bridge so one of the things that Josephine had out here is when they came back from Australia and they brought Kangaroos and everything three of the kangaroos that came back only one of them survived but they came back with some black swans and these black swans came Josephine or Napoleon gave them to Josephine and when I first came out here many years ago there is black swans still here I don’t think that they’re related I’d like to think they’re related but it was the first time I ever saw Black Swan and they’re beautiful so let’s cross our fingers but here hopefully a lot of people know who she is she is the OG she is the original she is Dean de verai Dean de verai this is uh was the first piece that the king had in his collection Louis the 14th it’s in marble and that one is actually at the Lou now but there’s copies of her everywhere this one’s actually in bronze but there’s copies of her in Marble that are all over the place um including the twillies and the luxemborg and fmau and verai okay let’s guys I see one okay wait there’s lots of people here look at how beautiful I mean could this just be my summer uh weekend residence sorry no tours on the weekends anymore cuz I’m moving to M and I’m an empress now look at you got to see through the trees here look at can you see him you swans are actually very mean yeah they’re not nice creatures the other side pest I don’t recall this fence being here before Oh there’s a GE there they are look it can you see them kind of hard to see them zo out of there just listen TOA I had to pause it because I need to take some pictures of the SW real quick so this here is her beautiful dining room these uh paintings on the wall are spy up inspired by Pompei look at this hi Joseph he had this room created for Napoleon so he had a place to come um she was trying to woo him back and this room was created to look like a tent that he would have had on a campaign and you have on the right Josephine and on the left here is his mother the next room is the one that I adore and would love to have this was his office and his library look at this can you imagine look at the books I me it’s kind of small I think I need a few more shelves but look at this a lot of the furniture that was here was sold off and taken and Napoleon theii when he ended up getting this back later he tried to collect as much as I can and they still do today sometimes they do get things donated that have belonged and right now they’re having an exhibit upstairs it’s about the different donators over the time so I can’t wait to see it’s might be where Josephine lived but we have a lot of Napoleon because of course but in here I love this room because this is one of I believe it was five of these he did and this is the Jac David painting of Napoleon going over the St Bernard path but here’s a fun fact if he was actually on like a mule but let’s repaint repaint him on some beautiful huge Steed taking him over victoriously across sanad and also another fun fact my parent grandparents have gone there but you have uh some really beautiful things in here some the paintings this one here’s young Napoleon much like one of my favorite paintings in the LEF check this gorgeous tapestry May from the painting that Gerard did Josephine in her coronation outfit this room is filled with different uh China porcelain that I belong to both Napoleon and Josephine look at this my cousin needs that Iris one at the Chateau beautiful glass wear Josephine by laon again you know she was married to the king of propaganda so pretty that was that first little one with a as a ink well look at so beautiful and then also they’re gaining on this room used to be two separate rooms was a small bedroom and then it was also part of Josephine’s bathroom and a lot of the furniture in here came from Paris where they were living when they got married and you can see this great little model of the chatau in the property and also what used to be there but you’ll see the Swans in here a lot and the swans I’ll tell you about that but look at also the peacock and that’s her daughter renia andan her son and of course Joseph you this is the anti- chamber to Josephine’s bedroom great view we go to the Garden it’s English style Garden she actually got really mad because uh F and preier who were the Architects for Napoleon that did a lot of the work on the Lo she was mad at them because they wanted out here in Napoleon wanted to have the perfect French lines and very geometric and that’s not what she wanted she wanted the English garden English garden basically means it’s all just pretty over the place you can walk right into her bedroom and again you have the swans just look at how gorgeous this is and this is where she took her very last breath was in this room surrounded by beautiful paintings of her roses the Josephine J so beautiful and this look at this is her little uh traveling kit and you can see on here she’s got a little picture of Napoleon these are just so amazing for sure this was was more of her everyday room where she would sleep here and when you see these beds and you see them they’re so small it’s because they would actually sleep somewhat sitting up because they believe that you would actually choke in your sleep on your tongue and die so that is why you see these beds so small it’s not because they were actually very small which is another thing that everybody thinks about Napoleon again I me he was short but he wasn’t exactly short for the period and then she walks right into her dressing room which also I think I need a dressing room obviously I need a shoe room and a couple offices I think I need one office that just has all my information about the L in it she can sit right here look at how beautiful that porcelain is we’re doing a lot of work on the building outside look at this and this is her budoir I really believe that I need to live like this of the Apollo beler is out the window me show you because it we might not be able to see it CU it’s past a fence so we’ll have to see if we could get down there but that is a copy obviously beautiful and of course a statue of on the top floor of the Chateau they have a museum and this Museum is a lot of this is dedicated to the last uh days of Napoleon and look at you have these this is there’s a lock of his hair in there and this was a a shirt he had worn when he was sick and those uh that little thing looks like parchment was com compresses he wore that shirt the thing about Napoleon is because it’s post Revolution we still have a lot of these things and this was furniture that was at s I think a lot of people don’t realize this is up here kind of skip this part I mean the the Chateau itself is very small what you get to see is not that much oh that reminds me my Grandma had things like this beautiful screens I love at this this is silver that had belonged to Napoleon we used there this box is insane and how about this who doesn’t need that a beautiful leather case to hold your dessert plates and we’ll see if they still have the death death mask here they didn’t but because he died on an island in the doctor that was there not have the proper things to create his death mask and so they actually made his death mask long after hours after he had died even a day after he died so it’s very different than what it should be that’s his son who is the king of Mars souvenirs that Josephine had of his look at he had a little baby play Cannon beautiful little snuff box that was his little necklace a little picture boots and Napoleon Ro look at that that’s pretty big feet so cool younger Napoleon how amazing is this bench out in the garden so here it is so he died on na5 at 5:49 p.m. and they did not do this until the 7th of May so so he had been dead for about a day and a half at this point when they did the death mask GL we don’t do this anymore it’s kind of a strange thing delaqua there’s the death mask of delaqua and he specifically said he did not want them to do a death Master there you go but there he is and these are all things that the he’s used for the last his last rights and then you have this great tent the tent that he actually the bed that he was laying in when he died is actually at uh the Army museum look at that creature it was the British that actually started the rumor saying how short he was and he was standard for the for his height for the French at that time so he wasn’t exactly you know 52 it’s a beautiful painting done representing it after his death this one’s called sainy done in 1900 by Oscar Rex and how about that okay there’s two young napoleons right there this really is a really it’s such a beautiful place I love these uh plays and these are all about the return of his ashes even though he wasn’t cremated he was buried his whole body um and so so when he was returned to Paris and put into L but you could see here this is pretty amazing look at how it’s all each one’s dated cortage at really amazing okay I just noticed I think we go to the other side it smells like freshly cut grass out here it’s so nice my shoes get dirty guys we’re having problems again not outdoorsy see if we can get to this side a little better you have the road right outside the gate here oh it’s a bird they’re coming down to us hi guys they beautiful I wonder if they have red feet now that I came down here everybody’s coming down here okay okay sweet little swans I would love to think that they’re related to the ones that belong to Josephine but I don’t know what do you think could be it could I mean I haven’t seen a lot of black swans you know that Paris at one time so there’s the island if you saw when I think we I think I did it my goodness last year two years ago maybe for around Fourth of July did A Walk On The Little Island the man-made Island um this named for Swans in Paris where the Statue of Liberty is at one point further down closer to enval at one point they had a massive amount of swans and they were laying eggs and like you know like chicken eggs for food and they could not the city was like using them restaurants because they could not eat them fast enough cuz they were laying so many eggs and there were so many swans that they didn’t know what to do and so they started just like pick get picking them up and like carting them off to outside of the city and putting them in lakes and things because there were so many these swans um and now Paris I usually I think I’ve seen at the most five or six Clump together um usually you see two or three together and they’re usually between pontar and and S that’s usually where you see them most of the time but again they’re not nice they are so beautiful but if you get too close to them they will like bite you look at how beautiful this is today and I’m hoping this works with recording these for you um because there’s so many places inside that I want to share with you where the signal is so bad and also just because of time constraints also with the Olympics coming up it’s going to be Mayhem it already is Mayhem trying to get around the city if you are coming in the next few weeks don’t try to even use a car or take a taxi unless you’re staying like if you’re on the Left Bank go someplace on the Left Bank in the car try not to hop over the river because it’s just um it’s pretty bad already and on the 18th so between July 18th and July 26th 26 is opening ceremonies between that period of time there will be you will be able to go anywhere you won’t the L is going to be closed they have not um publicly announced that the Lou is going to be closed for 9 days the Lou is also going to be closed many weekends in July and a August if there are events going on like the marathon and the cycling and they’re going past there the lube is just closing because it’s just going to be too difficult to get into there so if you’re coming in July don’t come in the beginning come uh come in beginning of August and the middle of August but stay away from opening ceremony time I think um I know on the other side go down the other path these beautiful ears so you have these big vases here they’re actually called medic vases um medich medic medicis depends on where you are what you want to call them that’s what the shape is the originals um they’ve made copies of them and they are in the twillies and also some of the originals the originals are actually in the Lou how perfect would be if one of the swans just came swimming on by us just listen so where we see that Obelisk right behind that is where Josephine’s bedroom is that Obelisk used to be have gold on it but it’s worn away see monuments of the park statue of Neptune oh and some of the things some of the statues that came here are here actually came from the Chateau de marlei so the Marley was mostly destroyed During the Revolution and in the Lou everything comes back to the lou it the the uh core Marley so there core uh pu and the core Marley and those two are in the rishel uing um and the Marley is named because the pieces that are in there came from the Chateau de Marley those statues and it’s really beautiful look at this I feel like I should have worn an empire style dress I could have just wandered through the garden so yes so her bedroom is right up there and then her little everyday bedroom is this next window then her little bathroom and I believe this is the tree we’ll go see this tree was a gift from Napoleon we’ll see because if I remember the first time I came here there was a plaque and the g it was different say so the they’ve let the grass really grow I think so cuz there’s a plaque here we’ll go around here and then I’d love to get back out but I don’t know I don’t think we could get I think that the Apollo badier copy it might be behind that fence cuz I would love to see that that is something that Napoleon T took used to be the L look at this tree it’s a uh Cedar of Morango look at that how gorgeous oh here’s all the statues that are on the front here planted 1800 oh la so beautiful I am also going to take a little walk from here oh I won’t be getting around take a little walk from here because uh that I’m going to the church and I have not been here before where Josephine’s actually buried and her daughter and you know her daughter with tensia she was married and her son would become Napo this is a beautiful [Applause] planting look at these sweet little what are these are these grapefruit they look kind of like grapefruit Citrus something they’re so cute look at that so this Obelisk used to have gold on it it just worn away and then you have these two centors here at the entrance so pretty all right guys I’m going to take off from here I’m going to walk down about a mile away to the church where she is and I’ll bring you a little something from there so I’m on my way to go walk to the church where Josephine is buried but look at what I came across so this is this beautiful park it say Chateau Deo and it was once part of her entire domain but look at this beautiful statue of her surrounded by roses love it and there’s some other you have an eagle over here of course look at how beautiful this is and there’s little families having picnics and sitting in the grass and playing ball and here’s the Chateau not open to the public or open at all I’m going to walk through here a little ways instead of walking alongside the road how beautiful is this beautiful little par oh my God what in the world was that that cat was living its best life I thought from far away before I I had the cut on my eye thought it was a baby carrier no no my grandma at one point wanted to get one of those a stroller to put her cat in and I was like uh that’s a hard pass grandma no you not going to walk the cat outside in a stroller look at this just beautiful okay oniva off to the bonjour bonjour we’re now we here at the church so this is the S Pierre s po church and it was the facade is 1633 it was paid for by Cardinal richu and it was done by Jac L Mercier who also did some work on the L you have Peter and Paul here right in the very front we’re going to go inside cuz this is where Josephine and her daughter poia is buried it’s a really beautiful small Church inside a lot of it was redone in the 19th century under Napoleon thei the organ in here now is from Napoleon theii but here’s some really beautiful stained glass windows on the left there is s and some of the other ones are just scenes from The Bible and of course we have a window up here of my girl s and we have also some that are Louis the 9th but when they had uh the funeral for uh Josephine her funeral she was brought from mmon which is about a mile away from here walked over here brought her coffin she was she’s in a trip light coffin it’s lead Oak and mahogany and the this is uh was done in 1825 so it’s done 9 years after she died and she is there and she’s in the kneeling position just exactly how she is in Jac Lou David’s painting of the coronation of Napoleon and I just bought this little book at Melone because of course I did and here she is look it’s reversed but this is how she she was in the painting and so that’s how she’s depicted here it’s a really beautiful tomb that she is in um and it was done by Louis Maran BTO and under uh the sculpt by the sculptor Pierre cartelli but it’s really beautiful very quiet back here she was brought here they brought her also her there was two people each one had a red velvet cushion and on top top of each one of those was a silver ear and inside that n one of them was her heart and one of them was her entrails and that’s kind of her nod to being like hey guys listen I was an empress I was used to be something and because that was something the kings and queens did like Louis the 13th and Louis the 14th they had their um their heart was placed in the St Paul St Louie church that’s in Paris um but she uh she did that so that she could be kind of linked to that as well but isn’t she so so beautiful look it’s just very quiet church not many people are here and she’s looking on the other side is her daughter but right next to her is her uncle in this little tomb here her uncle had come here from Martinique so you go right past the altar here some more beautiful stained glass St Peter and Paul up there again again let gu get all the Limelight but it’s really great here they actually have really great little plaques and it even will tell you all everything that’s on here so pretty look at that and there’s a rose window up above her they’re getting ready for a service in here they’re moving everything around and then on this side you have her daughter and this is Hortensia and Hortensia she was married off to Lou Napoleon the brother of Napoleon Napoleon was her stepfather and kind of adopted her and so she ended up uh marrying his brother and then she had the son that would become Lou Napoleon III so he is Napoleon III and she also was the queen of Holland so above right there at her feet or where she’s kneeling you see a crown and a lra and so that Crown is because she was a queen of Holland but she was also loved music and she was a songwriter she would write these uh songs that the Army would actually sing but it was uh Napoleon theii and Jen came and inaugurated this in 1858 after she had died and she’s there with an angel rising up above her look it’s just such a beautiful little church the walls and the blue very pretty and of course you can’t have a church without one of my other favorites Jon of Arc so she’s right here she’s just in plaster and right here on this window on the left is s Lou with his mother blany looks like he’s in trouble she’s wagging her finger at him and then this one is s Louie U feeding the poor on the right but it’s a really beautiful small Church the organ from Napoleon theii look at those Windows the windows look at uh see if I could zoom in here for you get one that’s not there very beautiful very plain so this is what you call the Clear story um because they wanted it to for the churches to have it so you could get more light into the church St Paul again and the baptism of Christ here at the baptismal font cute little kids with their bubbles but that’s it so that is a little bit of a glimpse today into the life of Madame Josephine the empress Sal Mel up there on the right so I hope you enjoyed this little glimpse into the life of Malon and this look at how beautiful this day is in Paris I mean just gorgeous and it’s a real easy um it’s only about 30 minutes 35 minutes uh depending on where you are in Paris um by Uber it’s only about 30 um because the area a is not doing so good these days um and so you could actually get over here from the Left Bank uh I think it actually took close to 40 minutes because there’s something going on today in the Sham CD Z because President Biden is here so many dignitaries are here because of the oh look at this the Josephine and Napoleon walk how great is that so um it was kind of hectic trying to get around but it’s really beautiful come out here during the week it’s probably a little better but on the weekend it’s beautiful and this Market looked really fun and they it actually had fruits and vegetables and flowers and everything um and I’m going to go pop into this other place because I still need to get my red geraniums and there’s a little place over here and maybe I might just get those finally today all right guys thank you so much um if you want to um any tips or appreciated you can send it to Claudine at claing Heming way.com at PayPal or venmo or zel um and I appreciate that it keeps it going I do spend a lot of time putting these together for you so um to keep this going and make it uh worthwhile um any any help you can to send some tips it’d be fantastic and I will see see you again soon thanks all