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Bulletin - Bulletin  
        
   
      
    THE BOOK OF THE MONTH - MAY
1815: The Return of Napoleon
Based on first-hand accounts by those for and against Napoleon, this volume by Paul Britten Austin tells the remarkable story of those extraordinary days of the Spring of 1815.
 
INFORMATION
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April, it is possible that you may encounter difficulties trying to access the site. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused. Thank you for the patience.
 
TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO
 
Fashion at the beginning of 'darling' month of May…
Women at the forefront of fashion continued to cover their heads and shoulders with veils which
from behind either were, or appeared to to be, tucked into the dress but which hung down to the sides and towards the front. But this use of the veil did not affect the wearing of flowers, combs or gold pins holding the hairpieces to the veils. Combs were set completely to one side: the ends of the short chignon were usually crimped. The straw hat with small curved brim was back. There was a craze for "mamelucks", short, long-sleeved quilted jackets, that is, open at the front and fringed with lace. The most popular coloured print muslin shawls were those 'à la turc', with large yellow leaves on brown set on a yellow background. As for jewelry, white opaline was particularly popular.
Journal de Paris, 11 Floréal, An X
 
1 May, 1802 (11 Floréal, An X), promulgation of the law on public education: creation of the
Lycées high schools; primary schools were to be gestion administered by the municipalities.
 
Paris, 2 May, 1802 (12 Floréal, An X), an ordonnance from the Préfet de Police banned all sites
within Paris dedicated to the making of firewood. From now on, all such sites were to be placed in the outskirts of the capital.
Journal des défenseurs de la Patrie, 13 Floréal, An X
 
4 May, 1802 (14 Floréal, An X), project for a law concerning the creation of the Légion
d'honneur.
 
4 May, 1802 (14 Floréal, An X), one writer in Le Moniteur noted that "this morning in the Rue de
Thionville, displayed for sale, there were heads, arms, feet and legs of saints who, in the past had been mutilated and taken from churches, in order to make room for the idols which were used as ornament for what they called the Temples of Reason." He  went on: "People had perhaps not imagined that when the remnants of the Catholic religion were thrown into the street, they would collected in order to become the object of speculation; this is the sort of detail which will not escape the attention of historians of the Revolution…"

Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, week!
 
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor

  
      THIS WEEK:
 
Agenda
- Re-enactment: Tolentino 1815

- Re-enactment: Battle Abbey international event

 
Just Published
Bloody Albuera: The 1811 Campaign in the Peninsular, by Ian F. Fletcher

The monthly titles: in April
- Book of the Month: '1815: The Return of Napoleon
by Paul Britten Austin
- This month's picture, 'The Dream
by Edouard Detaille
- in Biographies, a biography of Camille de Tournon
, prefect of Rome
- In the Collectors Corner, the allegorical clock, 'Diogenes looking for a man'
, by Claude Galle
 
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