"When people talk about Napoleon plublicly (on TV for example), it is still very political"
There is a short piece on the BBC News website about how France views Napoleon. Do you feel it's an accurate description?
There is a short piece on the BBC News website about how France views Napoleon. Do you feel it's an accurate description?
Paris still has a lot of Napoleonic traces (eg, the Arch of Triumph, the Vendome column, the Invalides, the ring of boulevards named after his marshals...).
Personally, I don't give a damn about nationalism. People taking pride from the actions of long-dead folks happening to be born roughly at the right location, or holding grudges because their country lost territory decades ago leave me cold.
I've read recently that Rome was the 131th french district at that time.
I've also seen on Arte a documentary with a positive point of view about the french administration in Germany during that time (maybe in Munich).
A lot of french people carry a kind of collective inconscious shame around the history of the country. It can be about the Kings, Napoleon, the colonization of Africa, or the collaboration of the french governement with the nazis.
It can also come from the failure against the Great-Britain during the carribean wars in the 16th century. France lost the battle, lost Haiti and Napoleon sold La Louisiane...
English is the new latin not french. France is an outsider.