Musée Bertrand
Napoleon, in the house where his companion in exile died
A museum of art and history in Châteauroux, in the townhouse of General Bertrand, Grand Marshal of the Palace and Napoleon's companion in exile on Saint Helena. Free entry.
Bertrand followed Napoleon to Saint Helena and stayed to the end. He died here, in this house, on 31 January 1844. The townhouse dates from the second half of the 18th century, built to plans attributed to his grandfather, an engineer to the king. Listed as a historic monument in 1944.
The Napoleonic collection came down through direct descent: a gilded-silver campaign case, a fan belonging to Joséphine, a death mask, the sabre of Aboukir.
But the museum doesn't stop there. Gallo-Roman statuary, a 13th-century enamelled reliquary from Limoges, Flemish and Dutch painting from the 15th and 16th centuries including a Brueghel, and the original plaster of Camille Claudel's Sakountala.
A four-hundred-square-metre French formal garden.
A Musée de France since 2003. Free entry, for both the permanent collections and exhibitions. Closed Mondays.