Tuesday April 7, 2026 LePecq France

By Ellen Outten



We are just outside of Paris docked at Le Pecq as it is close to our first tour, Chateau de Malmaison, the home of Josephine and Napoleon Bonaparte.

The weather today is perfect, about 70 degrees and sunny.  We left the ship at 9:40 am for a 2 hour tour of the house and we also had access to the gardens but little was in bloom .  However the driveway entrance to the house had some beautiful tulips and annual flowers in bloom.  Bettiann took a longer walk to find the black swan and did finally find one.

We had a great house tour to see how Josephine, originally from Martinique bought the house and made it into the home she wanted.  Napoleon also lived there when he wasn’t off conquering countries.  He never had a child by Josephine.  She had a son and a daughter by her first “evil” husband who died in jail during the revolution.  He was executed.  Josephine also went to prison solely because she was married to the first husband and later let out.  

She was determined to live a life of royalty and did so.


The dining room

All the tulips in bloom in the driveway entrance 




Napoleon’s bedroom 

Some of the amazing dishes on display all dating back to 1799



Josephine really liked swans

Josephine’s bedroom 

The original billiard table 



More flowers as we walked back down the driveway to our bus.




This afternoon we head to the Palace of Versailles.  








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