Napoleon Bonaparte: Immersive Virtual Reality Experience

It’s 1817 in Sainte-Hélène. Napoleon Bonaparte himself invites you in to his final home to tell a story of his battles, the rise of some of Paris’s greatest monuments from the Colonne Vendôme to the Arc de Triomphe, his defeats, and ultimately, his exile to Sainte-Hélène.

It’s like stepping in a time machine. Suddenly the modern day quays of Bordeaux melt away and it is truly as if Napoleon is in front of you thanks to an immersive virtual reality experience.

Napoléon: l’Epopée Immersive

Upon entering the Napoléon: l’Epopée Immersive space, located among the boutiques of Bord’eau Village, I was surprised to see it’s a small space of just 60m2. Each virtual reality experience is 30 minutes and up to 10 people can participate in the reserved time slot.

Participants arrive 15 minutes prior to your reserved time slot. If you don’t know the key timeline of Napoleon, there’s a brief history to read up on in both French and English while you wait.

We were given our virtual reality headsets, which are available in English or French. Once you have the headset on, you see only an unobtrusive white outline of the other participants. You can move freely about the open space during the immersive experience, and the white outline of the other participants and a red grid outline direct you from bumping in to others or running in to the walls.

The visuals and special effects are striking. There are objects you can interact with like a globe you can spin and a piano you can play the keys of.

Suddenly Napoleon enters the room. We’re transported to a meeting of the war council on the eve of the Battle of Austerlitz, then suddenly the cavalry is charging across the battlefield. Next we’re transported to Paris. You nearly get vertigo as the Colonne Vendôme, erected by Napoleon in 1806 to commemorate the Battle of Austerlitz, rises triumphantly before you.

Celebrations of victory and the building of an empire change to feelings of despair on the frigid battlefields of Berezina. Napoleon’s story of both greatness and decline is coming to an end, and suddenly we’re sailing alongside Napoleon on his final journey as he is exiled to Sainte-Hélène.

The experience is designed by Sandora, experts in immersive experiences. Not only did Sandor use striking visual and sound effects, but also historical archives and research to tell Napoleon’s story through the virtual reality experience. The immersive experience has been certified by members of the scientific committee Fondation Napoléon.