Napoléon à Sainte-Hélène: La conquête de la mémoire (6 April to 24 July 2016)

A Hat that Napoleon Wore on St Helena

The current exhibition at Les Invalides is the climax of several years' work and planning by Michel Dancoisne-Martineau, Honorary French Consul and Curator of the French Properties on St. Helena.

Napoleon's Uniform

Michel has had the unstinting support of the Fondation Napoléon, and has worked in collaboration with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development, the National Museums of Malmaison and Bois-Préau, the Musée de l'Armée and the St. Helena Government.

Wash bowl used during the captivity on St. Helena

The recent visit of the former Governor of St Helena to Paris and Corsica is a symbol of unprecedented collaboration between the French Properties and the St. Helena Government, designed to promote tourism as the island prepares for the opening of the new airport.

Napoleon's bath without the wooden case that remains on St. Helena

As we went round the exhibition we became quite emotional seeing videos of present day St. Helena, a place from which like Napoleon we haven't really been able to escape.

It soon became apparent though that this is a once in many lifetimes exhibition. Here are items familiar from visits to Longwood, here too are unfamiliar and often grander ones from other museums, a totality unlikely ever again to be assembled in one place.

Here are clothes Napoleon wore, fine china on which he dined, a fine washbowl and ewer, a chess set on which he sometimes played, not that well,

to while away the endless hours of boredom,

the bed in which he died, and much else besides.

Here are pieces of furniture from Longwood, beautifully restored, that will eventually be shipped back to St. Helena.

Amongst the paintings on display is the now familiar one by James Sant, produced for Lord Rosebery around the turn of the twentieth century, and another painted around the same time by the little known Austrian painter, Oscar/Oskar Rex.

Oscar Rex, "C'est fini: Napoléon Ier à Sainte-Hélène"

This painting has been loaned from Malmaison, which we also visited on this trip.

The Exhibition has justifiably received great critical acclaim by UK as well as French journalists. Here for example is the one from the Guardian , which rightly gives a big tribute to the painstaking work done by Michel Dancoisne-Martineau over many years. It cannot though escape the English obsession with Napoleon's alleged smallness, here we find references to the "little corporal" and his "small feet." Thankfully we are spared mention of more private parts!

As we were walking round Napoleon's tomb after the Exhibition, we got a very pleasant surprise.

With Michel Martineau at Napoleon's Tomb

Here quite appropriately was Napoleon's representative on earth, showing a party of English speaking journalists around Les Invalides prior to a guided tour of the Exhibition.

Our meetings with Michel capped a great visit to Paris. My only regret is that I did not go round the exhibition a second time. It would surely have been well worth it.

St Helena Airport: To Be or Not To Be? That still seems to be the question.

St Helena Independent 13th May 2016

Another confusing week goes by and still we are no clearer as to when/if commercial aircraft will be able to use the new airport than at the time of my previous posting on the subject. The St Helena Independent on its front page has a photo which perhaps suggests a solution!

First the good news. The airport has received certification

Another major milestone for St Helena Airport was achieved yesterday afternoon, Tuesday 10 May 2016, when Air Safety Support International (ASSI) issued an Aerodrome Certificate to St Helena Airport - having been satisfied that the Airport infrastructure, aviation security measures and air traffic control service complies with international aviation safety.

So far so good. Then we are informed that this certification is valid only until November 9th 2016, at which point it will need to be re-certified. This apparently has nothing to do with the wind problem, and one rightly asks what will happen if commercial flights have not even begun by that date? 

The official update dated 9th May is worth studying for clues:

Work is now underway to gather and analyse data and put in place mitigation measures to deal with turbulence and wind shear at St Helena Airport - to ensure the safe operation of regular passenger flights. The safety of aircraft and passengers is, of course, paramount.

At present there are no plans to extend the service of R.M.S. St Helena which will shortly be on its way to London, but SHG

will ensure passenger and freight access to St Helena & Ascension. The Governor is chairing high level meetings twice a week to work on access to the islands.

The question of medical access is also being examined: presumably medical flights will involve smaller planes which will not run into the same problems as larger commercial aircraft?

Then we come to the real issue:

Specific steps are being taken to address turbulence and wind shear at the Airport, involving analysis of all available and new data, including weather data, plus formal reports from pilots of all aircraft that have landed at St Helena Airport. Reports on the strength of wind conditions will be maintained and regularly updated and consideration will be given to installing specialised wind measuring equipment Computer modelling is also being developed to test different scenarios, and some wind tunnel work may also be carried out.

I wonder how many planes have so far landed on the new airport, and therefore how extensive is the date set on which modelling is to be based?

The statement ends with an assurance that all parties are working flat out to commence commercial flights at St Helena Airport at the earliest possible opportunity and that the public will be kept fully informed.

I can't help feel a little sorry for the new Governor who must have expected a Royal Visitor at Plantation House for the grand ceremonial opening of the new airport, but is instead faced with a host of problems which neither she nor anybody else in the St. Helena or Westminster Governments expected, because nobody would listen to Brian Heywood the retired airline pilot who warned the Prime Minister back in 2010. I am even more sorry for those who have invested time and money in preparation for the expected influx of tourists.

I am also a little surprised that the press in the UK has largely ignored this problem. But things closer to home are perhaps not quite going according to plan either.