il fait nuit

il fait nuit, Arc de Triomphe, Paris, France

I’m especially fond of the Arc de Triomphe. I discovered I have the same surname as one of  Napoleon’s generals. He died in October 1813 from wounds suffered at the Battle of Leipzig.  Though the general was born in Paris, his father was German. At the insistence of  his grandson, in 1893 the general’s name was added to the list of 660 officers engraved on the monument. It was the second to the last name so inscribed.  Unfortunately, I haven’t found a direct family connection to the general, but I like to claim his anyway because he was described by one of his fellow officers as the most beautiful man in all of the French army.

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