Exiled to St Helena, Napoleon once declared: “You will still hear Paris shout ‘Vive l’Empereur’!”. And in December 1840, more than a million people cheered the passage of Napoleon’s funeral cart between the Neuilly bridge and the Invalides. The immense golden catafalque rested on a 30-metre long chariot drawn by 16 horses. The procession passed under the Arc de Triomphe (built by Napoleon to pay tribute to his soldiers), then went down the Champs-Elysées, crossed the Place de la Concorde, and finally arrived at the Invalides. In accordance with his wishes, Napoleon was laid to rest not far from the Seine, “in the midst of the French people whom I loved so much”.