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None of the drawings or paintings make it look cold but written accounts depict otherwise.
Despite the temperature never rising above 10 degrees Celsius, the crowd of stretching from the Pont de Neuilly to the Invalides was huge. Some houses' rooftops were covered with people. Respect and curiosity won out over irritation, and the biting cold cooled all restlessness in the crowd. Under pale sunlight after snow, the plaster statues and gilded-card ornaments produced an ambiguous effect. Retour des cendres - Wikipedia
Which is 50 degrees Fahrenheit, but this attendee describes it as very cold -
SHALL I tell you, my dear, that when François woke me at a very early hour on this eventful morning, while the keen stars were still glittering overhead, a half-moon, as sharp as a razor, beaming in the frosty sky, and a wicked north wind blowing, that blew the blood out of one's fingers and froze your leg as you put it out of bed; -- shall I tell you, my dear, that when François called me, and said, "V'là vot' café, Monsieur Titemasse, buvez-le, tiens, il est tout chaud," I felt myself, after imbibing the hot breakfast, so comfortable under three blankets and a mackintosh, that for at least a quarter-of-an-hour no man in Europe could say whether Titmarsh would or would not be present at the burial of the Emperor Napoleon. THE SECOND FUNERAL OF NAPOLEON, Pt. 3 (1841, 1874 ed.) by Michael Angelo Titmarsh (pseud. for William Makepeace Thackeray)
He also describes the carriage, and his description makes it seem as though the coffin could be seen as well, which doesn’t match other accounts. Interestingly, he does describe it as a “machine”. In general, though, given the grandiose appearance we see in the drawings, written descriptions of it are lacking.
Fancy then, that the guns are fired at Neuilly: the body landed at daybreak from the funereal barge, and transferred to the car; and fancy the car, a huge juggernaut of a machine, rolling on four wheels of an antique shape, which supported a basement adorned with golden eagles, banners, laurels, and velvet hangings. Above the hangings stand twelve golden statues with raised arms supporting a huge shield, on which the coffin lay. On the coffin was the imperial crown, covered with violet velvet crape, and the whole vast machine was drawn by horses in superb housings, led by valets in the imperial livery... His Royal Highness the Prince de Joinville. The 500 sailors of the "Belle Poule" marching in double file on each side of
THE CAR.
[Hush! the enormous crowd thrills as it passes, and only some few
voices cry Vive l'Empereur! Shining golden in the frosty sun -- with
hundreds of thousands of eyes upon it, from houses and housetops,
from balconies, black, purple, and tricolour, from tops of leafless trees,
from behind long lines of glittering bayonets under shakos and bearskin
caps, from behind the Line and the National Guard again,
pushing, struggling, heaving, panting, eager, the heads of an
enormous multitude stretching out to meet and follow
it, amidst long avenues of columns and statues
gleaming white, of standards rainbow-coloured,
of golden eagles, of pale funereal urns,
of discharging odours amidst huge
volumes of pitch-black smoke,
THE GREAT IMPERIAL CHARIOT
ROLLS MAJESTICALLY ON.
[Hush! the enormous crowd thrills as it passes, and only some few
voices cry Vive l'Empereur! Shining golden in the frosty sun -- with
hundreds of thousands of eyes upon it, from houses and housetops,
from balconies, black, purple, and tricolour, from tops of leafless trees,
from behind long lines of glittering bayonets under shakos and bearskin
caps, from behind the Line and the National Guard again,
pushing, struggling, heaving, panting, eager, the heads of an
enormous multitude stretching out to meet and follow
it, amidst long avenues of columns and statues
gleaming white, of standards rainbow-coloured,
of golden eagles, of pale funereal urns,
of discharging odours amidst huge
volumes of pitch-black smoke,
THE GREAT IMPERIAL CHARIOT
ROLLS MAJESTICALLY ON.
![Arrivée_de_Napoléon_aux_Invalides_[...]_btv1b530123993_1.jpeg](https://data.stolenhistory.net/img/missing.png "Arrivée_de_Napoléon_aux_Invalides_[...]_btv1b530123993_1.jpeg")
