Rick Steves’ Europe: Tracking Napoleon's rise and fall in Paris

Rick Steves

I can’t think of any two people more prominent in the minds of French citizens than the Virgin Mary and Emperor Napoleon. And they share an important date: August 15 – when it’s believed she ascended into Heaven, and when he was born. Of course, churches across France recall Notre Dame (our lady). But city halls recall Napoleon, and his huge impact on French civic life.

When I’m filming my TV shows and writing my guidebooks in France, I try to get the straight story on Napoleon. But it can be tricky. His own quote, “What is history but a myth agreed upon?” applies to his own life, where it's sometimes hard to separate myth from reality.

Just a humble kid from Corsica, Napoleon attended military school in Paris. He rose quickly through the ranks during the tumultuous years of