Battle day!

We got to the Waterloo site at noon and marvelled at the throngs of people. I've never seen so many people in one place. And yet, within five minutes of our arrival, I heard my name and realized that the daughter of our across-the-street neighbour was standing right in front of me. Emily!!! We knew she would be there, and she knew to look for us. But in 50,000 or so people? So we hung together for a bit and took some photos to send home to her dad.

Waterloo is an incredibly big deal. Reenactors have been camping here for a week, cooking in cast iron pots over fires and holding drills. Some 6,000 reenactors and historians were involved. The numbers were astonishing.

There were quite a few women -- some playing the roles of male soldiers, others playing wives, who often accompanied their husbands on campaigns. There were even a few, as one announcer called them, "women of easy virtue."

And then there is Napoleon. I later learned that he is 47-year-old Paris lawyer Frank Samson. He has played the role for more than a decade, and is so convincing that people crowd around him wherever he goes, shouting, "Vive l'empereur!"

We toured the Allied bivouac first. At 4:00 or so, we walked a very long way to get to the French bivouac, but it was so worth it. I'll let the photos tell the story. One actually felt the pre-battle excitement in the air as everyone prepared themselves for the fight.

Next, we walked a very long way (noticing a trend?) to the bleachers at the battlefield. At one point while trudging along the road, we heard the clip clop of horses, turned, and saw some mounted police -- then we looked further and saw mounted reenactors behind them. And then we realized that the column of riders went on for as far as we could see -- hundreds of Napoleonic cavalry in full costume, pennants flying. We loved seeing and hearing that long line of mounted soldiers pass. So impressive!

Once at the stadiums, we realized that our seats were at the farthest end. So we walked some more. They were great seats though, because the wind blew all the cannon smoke away from us and towards the other stands. Many people would have had trouble seeing through the thick smoke, once things got going.

The actual reenactment was amazing. We were closest to the Prussians, in their black uniforms, and had a pretty good view of everything except the very middle of the battlefield, which dipped down low.

There was narration in four languages, battle sounds, and occasional music. And a lot of (very loud) cannon fire and volleys of muskets. The smoke billowed, ranks of soldiers marched up and down the field, cavalry charged back and forth at full gallop -- it was awesome to see.

On the advice of several people who had been to the reenactment the night before, we left a half hour early and walked to the train station. This was a brilliant plan, except we took a wrong turn and wound up walking for about 40 minutes longer than we should have. Nonetheless, we managed to get on a train right away and get back to the hotel at 11 or so. I can't imagine how the trip home was for all the people who stayed to the end and tried to get onto shuttles to the station before the last train at 1 a.m.

It was an incredibly entertaining day -- a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle. I have so many photos to go through when we're home!