Rueil-Malmaison, residence of Napoleon and Joséphine

31 October 2011 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Paris / Île-de-France Reading Time:  7 minutes

Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul Church © Myrabella

Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul Church © Myrabella

Rueil-Malmaison is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, in the Hauts-de-Seine department. It is located 12.6 kilometers from the center of Paris. Rueil is famous for the Château de Malmaison where Napoleon and his first wife Joséphine de Beauharnais lived. Upon her death in 1814, she was buried at the nearby Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul church, which stands at the centre of the city. The Rueil barracks of the Swiss Guard were constructed in 1756 under Louis XV by the architect Axel Guillaumot, and have been classifed Monument historique since 1973. The Guard was formed by Louis XIII in 1616 and massacred at the Tuileries on 10 August 1792 during the French Revolution. At the end of the 19th century, Impressionist painters like Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edouard Manet and Claude Monet came to paint the Seine River which crosses the town. Rueil is (despite the title) the principal location of the novel Loin de Rueil by the French novelist Raymond Queneau.   read more…

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