PARIS: Napoleon is — once again — taking France by storm, and this more than 200 years after he came to power, during a reign which saw him transform France, indeed Europe, in ways that none of his successors has ever been able to accomplish.

A four-part TV series recently shown on public channel France- 2 was viewed by 30 million viewers, with the popular success so resounding that officials of the Hotel des Invalides museum, where Napoleon rests in a glass-encased memorial, has seen the number of visitors increase by 35 per cent.

Says Thierry Lentz, director of the ‘Fondation Napoleon’ in Paris: “It’s a phenomenon that has been going on for 200 years, but if it’s become even more prominent today, it’s largely because of the TV series,” an international co-production starring comic actor Christian Clavier in the title role, and directed by Canadian filmmaker Yves Simonneau.

Malmaison, the residence he inhabited out in suburban Rueil- Malmaison when he was First Consul, which has become a museum, has also seen the number of visitors increase significantly since the broadcast of the TV series, as has the Musee Bonaparte out in Ajaccio, capital of his native Corsica, the city where he was born in 1769

Meanwhile, C’etait Bonaparte, a play made up of some 55 historic tableaux authored by Alain Decaux and directed by Robert Hossein, is playing nightly in Paris at the Palais des Sports before a usually standing-room crowd of 4000.

And this in spite of the fact that the play is done with no known actors, Napoleon himself being portrayed by a complete unknown, Fabrizio Bongione, who until now had played small roles in his native Belgium.