Napoleon Column
The square where Napoleon rested on his way from Elba to Paris
The story
Before you is Place de l’Apié in Saint-Vallier-de-Thiey, a village on the Route Napoléon. On March 1, 1815, Napoleon, who had escaped from the island of Elba, landed at Golfe-Juan with about eleven hundred soldiers and set off for Paris. Early on March 2 his troop halted on the Roquevignon plateau above Grasse, and then stopped here, by the church. The emperor sat in the shade of a large elm. The innkeeper Réal brought him a refreshment. The glass was long kept as a relic and then, so they say, sold about a hundred times. On the stone bench around the tree they carved: “Napoleon sat here on March 2, 1815.” In 1867 the wind brought down the elm, and in 1869 the column you see was put up in its place. For the night the troop moved on to Séranon. Napoleon’s path from the coast through the Alps is now called the Route Napoléon. It is 331 kilometers long. The nave of the church next door, Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption, dates from the thirteenth century.
Visiting
The square is always open. The tourist office is on the same square: 2 Place de l’Apié, +33 4 92 60 32 00. Markets on Fridays and Sundays. Three kilometers to the west is the Grotte de Baume Obscure; according to its website, in 2026 it is open until mid-November.
Sources
- Côte d’Azur France — Colonne Napoléon, Saint-Vallier-de-Thiey
- Fondation Napoléon — La route Napoléon
- Wikipédia (FR) — Saint-Vallier-de-Thiey
- Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Tourisme — Saint-Vallier-de-Thiey
- Grotte de Baume Obscure
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