200 years after Waterloo, Napoleon’s legend lives in Paris

Just a humble kid from Corsica, he went to military school in Paris.

Looking at the final painting, which depicts Napoleon with symbols of the legal system he gave France, the “Code Napoléon,” it’s fascinating to consider the mix of ideals, charisma and megalomania of this leader.

On the arch’s massive left pillar, a relief sculpture shows a toga-clad Napoleon posing confidently, while an awestruck Paris — crowned by her city walls — kneels at his imperial feet.

Napoleon died before the Arc’s completion, but it was finished in time for his 1840 funeral procession to pass underneath, carrying his remains (19 years dead) from exile to Paris.

Elsewhere in Paris, the complex of Les Invalides — a former veterans’ hospital built by Louis XIV — has various French military collections, collectively called the Army Museum.

Here, in addition to galleries on World War I and World War II, you’ll see plenty of Napoleon memorabilia: a bed with mosquito netting, a director’s chair, his overcoat and pistols, and a table that you can imagine his generals hunched over as they made battle plans.

Napoleon’s beloved Arabian horse — Le Vizir — weathered many a campaign with Napoleon, grew old with him in exile, and now stands stuffed and proud.

The museum also features high-tech exhibits such as a projection screen that maps the course of the Battle of Waterloo.

Once the most powerful man in the world, he spent his final years as a lonely outcast suffering from ulcers, dressed in his nightcap and slippers, and playing chess, not war.