“Before Grenoble I was an adventurer; at Grenoble I was a prince.” The city meant to stop him gave him a garrison, a fortress and the legitimacy the return had lacked.

Historical context

On the evening of 7 March 1815, after the rallying at Laffrey, the column arrived before Grenoble. The governor had the gates shut, but the garrison refused to fire and the townspeople joined in: the Porte de Bonne was battered down with a beam. Having no keys, inhabitants brought Napoleon the fragments of the broken gate — he kept them as a trophy.

The city gave him what he lacked. Until then he had a thousand men and a wager; he left with seven thousand soldiers, artillery, an arsenal and a first-rank fortress. The words he used at Saint Helena sum up the shift exactly: "Before Grenoble I was an adventurer; at Grenoble I was a prince."

The choice of city was no accident. The Dauphiné had stayed attached to the revolutionary legacy and bore the return of privilege badly; the garrison was made up of veterans put on half-pay by the Restoration. Grenoble had already given a signal in 1788, on the Day of the Tiles, one of the first riots announcing the Revolution.

From Golfe-Juan to Grenoble, the route of March 1815 is now called the Route Napoléon, opened in 1932 and marked with eagles at the stages. The journey took six days; one was enough for the enterprise to stop being an adventure.