Waterloo Trip

When I saw the notice about the re-enactment of the Waterloo battle in the Stage Committee newsletter, I knew immediately that I would spend my hard-earned €25 to go there! Given my interest in all things Napoleonic, there was no other choice.

On June 18th, early in the morning, I went with some friends and fellow stagiaires to Waterloo on a bus from Gare du Midi. At first we were a bit reluctant after we realised the battle would only start at 6.30pm and thought we would be wandering around aimlessly for hours. This was fortunately not the case! Our organiser, Radoslav Soth, decided to make us go so early for a reason. We first started immersing ourselves in the Napoleonic period by seeing two short movies about the historical background of the battle, giving us the chance to remind ourselves of what we learned in secondary school about these times, followed by a visit to a building hosting a huge circular canvas showing key moments from the battle, accompanied by sounds of cavalry charges and gun fire.
       

After these initial steps into the reality of this 1815 event, we of course went to the gift shop, which provided us with the opportunity to buy must-have items like Napoleon t-shirts, hats, fridge magnets, pencils etc. We also went to a small wax museum, which apart from wax figures of Bonaparte, Wellington and Bluecher (the three most important leaders) and other military officers, had a small collection of memorabilia related to the battle. This was followed by climbing to the top of a mound built in the place where one of the coalition leaders was wounded. On the top there is a lion, which is supposed to symbolise the peace brought to Europe by this victory. Since the mound was quite high, we also had a nice view of the entire battlefield.
    

After a well-deserved lunch it was time to see the campsites of the opposing parties. Unfortunately the weather was not our ally that day, as it started raining cats and dogs when we were visiting the camps, turning the ground into mud. Nevertheless, we had a lot of fun seeing the re-enactors dressed up in uniforms, marching and preparing for the upcoming ultimate clash. We had the chance to speak with the Duke of Wellington and wish him good luck, and some of us were even temporarily drafted into the English army!

Finally it was time for the battle to commence. After some initial trouble, caused by the high number of spectators, most of us managed to position ourselves strategically and see the fight. It was well scripted, with the hundreds of actors doing their best to show us how the battle actually played out. There were a lot of muskets and cannons firing and there were many cavalry charges. To help us better orient ourselves in the sometimes chaotic skirmishes, we could hear a commentator explaining to us what was currently happening. Eventually, the Emperor’s army was defeated and after some time we managed to reach our homes in Brussels, after a long but certainly entertaining day.

Bartosz Rogala,

DG ENTR

Photos by
Adriana Stefanova,
DG TRADE