Dundee’s annual French Week Soirée at Chez Nous B&B had to be put on hold last year due to the lockdown, but this year it was back, albeit in a smaller form. It was still an entrancing affair, with fine dining, much hilarity and “stepping off the light fantastic” à la française!
The Prince Imperial Route was pioneered by historian and Pietermaritzburg French linguist Glenn Flanagan in 1995. The route commemorates the tantalizing but tragic events surrounding the last Napoleon – the young Prince Imperial, Napoléon Eugène Louis Jean Joseph.
He was only 23 when he died in a skirmish while out on patrol with British soldiers in the Qwe Qwe area, in the Nquthu district, on June 1, 1879. Ms Flanagan has done much to instill a love of history and French culture in KZN and among the local community at Qwe Qwe, where there is a memorial to the Prince Imperial and is the resting place of the two soldiers who also died in the skirmish.
About 40 Zulus ambushed the group, causing the Prince’s horse to bolt as he tried to mount it. His right arm was crushed as he slipped from the saddle.
Firing his revolver at the attackers, he was speared in the leg and shoulder by assegais. He was eventually overwhelmed and fell, having sustained 18 separate wounds. On the weekend, visitors from as far afield as Newcastle, Pietermaritzburg, Vryheid and Westville joined in to relish the Francophone and Francophile ambiance.
This year, Elisabeth Durham of Chez Nous arranged for a group of tourism students from Majuba College to accompany the visitors to the Prince Imperial monument precinct on Sunday – a gesture they lapped up, Ms Durham said. Ms Flanagan commented that in this Bicentenary Commemorative Year of the death of Napoleon I and being the 25th anniversary year of ‘La Route du Prince Imperial Louis Napoleon’, it was a fitting occasion for the commemorative ceremony and wreath-laying.
The local school has benefited from support from especially the French Consulate in terms of a water supply and other logistical support.
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