The castle of Malmaison and Bois-Préau

The visit of the Château de Malmaison and the garden

Today Malmaison is a museum-castle. It was once the private residence of Napoleon Bonaparte and his wife Empress Joséphine.
Joséphine acquired it in 1799. She has made it an elegant and refined residence, the couple’s private residence. Over the years, Malmaison became a place where many political decisions were taken. Joséphine settled there permanently after her divorce and died there in 1814.

• This castle is a castle-museum. This was the wish of Napoleon III, grandson of Empress Joséphine
• A visit to the Château de Malmaison will allow you to discover several rooms decorated with marble, gilding, and mosaics.
• A rich collection of works dating from the beginning of the reign of Napoleon 1st is presented to the public: furniture, paintings, porcelain, weapons… of the Napoleonic era.
• Several rooms from the time have been reconstructed: Napoleon’s mahogany wood bookcase or the oval room where Joséphine died in 1814.
• The gardens of Malmaison : the Empress Joséphine loved roses, especially fragrant roses (she was called rose) and the rose garden lists more than 150 varieties of roses
• The black swans have been back at Malmaison since 2017, just like in Josephine’s time

With children

• An audio guide for children is available in French and English (price: €2)
• Visits are organised for families on weekends and at Christmas

Conference tours of Malmaison

• All year round, visits are organized with a tour guide.
• Several themes are proposed. Some examples of scheduled conferences: ” Discovering Malmaison“, ” The extraordinary destiny of General Bonaparte“, ” A day with Joséphine”