Paris - Malmaison et Bois Preau

The château of Malmaison, in the western Paris suburb of Rueil-Malmaison, contains many mementos of Napoleon and the Empress Joséphine. Since 1906 it has been a national museum, the Musée National du Château de Malmaison.

The château, in Early Baroque style, was built in 1620 and was acquired in 1799 by Joséphine de Beauharnais, Napoleon's first wife.

After being divorced by Napoleon she lived here retired and alone. She died in Malmaison in 1814, 10 months before Napoleon, after the failure of his "hundred days", came here to take farewell of his family and his country before going into exile on St Helena. Napoleon III bought the property in memory of his grandmother and had it restored. A later owner presented it to the state in 1904.

The interior is in Empire style. Most of the furnishings belong to the château, but some came from the palaces of Saint-Cloud, Fontainebleau and the Tuileries. On the ground floor are the Billiard Room, the Gold Saloon (Salon Doré), with valuable Sèvres porcelain, the Music Saloon (with its original furnishings of 1812, including Joséphine's harp and her daughter Hortense's piano), the Dining Room (with a gilt table service which was a coronation gift from the city of Paris in 1804), the Council Chamber (with furniture from Saint-Cloud and Compiègne) and the Library, which has been preserved in its original state. On the first floor are the private apartments of the Emperor and Empress, including the Marengo Saloon, with a mural (by Louis David, 1801) depicting Napoleon's victory at Marengo.
Tucked away in a corner of the garden is a collection of roses grown since before 1800.