15 Night cruise departing from Walvis Bay to Praia onboard Le Lyrial.

In partnership with the magazine Point de Vue, with the exceptional presence on board of Jean Tulard, Thierry Lentz, and Franck Ferrand.

PONANT is organising an exceptional 16-day cruise to commemorate the bicentenary of the death of Napoleon Bonaparte on 5 May 1821.

You will board Le Lyrial in Namibia then chart a course towards the island of Saint Helena to arrive the day before official ceremony, which will be held on 5 May 2021. Although this British territory, the site of his last exile, houses his tomb, it remains above all the place where Napoleon dictated his memoirs and sealed his legend. Offering an intimate and moving testimony of his last moments on the island, the Longwood Residence and the Emperor’s furniture have been preciously maintained and preserved by the French authorities and the Fondation Napoléon. During your visit, you will travel through history in a luxuriant and bucolic setting, far from the sombre image of the island.

You will then call at Ascension Island, some 1,000 km off the coast of Saint Helena. On this desert island, the British created a garrison to counter any hope of escape by the Emperor. Today the island is a veritable sanctuary for birds, marine mammals and green turtles.

You will then sail north along the maritime route taken in 1815 by the Northumberland, the ship that escorted Napoleon to Saint Helena and will enjoy a few days at sea before reaching Praia, the capital of the Cape Verde Islands, which will be your port of disembarkation.

Highlights of this cruise:

WALVIS BAY
On the wild coastlines of Namibia, you will feel the force of the encounter between the infinite dunes of the oldest desert in the world and the tempestuous waves of the Atlantic Ocean. A natural port in the curve of a bay formed by an old river delta, Walvis Bay is protected from the whims of the ocean by the natural barrier of Pelican Point. It is a real refuge for migratory birds, where thousands of pink flamingos and Cape cormorants mix with one of the largest Cape fur seal colonies in the world. On the Namibian coastline, the seals make the most of the Benguela Current, cold and full of fish, which comes up from the Antarctic.

JAMESTOWN, SAINT HELENA ISLAND
Nestling in the hollow of a volcanic valley, Jamestown retains the charm of a small English village in the tropics. A centre of Napoleonic legend, the French authorities preciously conserved evidence of the Emperor’s exile on the island, including the Briars and Longwood House pavilions, the “valley of the tomb” and Bertrand’s Cottage. Escorted to Saint Helena by the British aboard HMS Northumberland in 1815, Napoléon died there in 1821. Far removed from the arid hell he described in the memoirs dictated to his faithful companions, you will discover that this natural fortress offers a very diverse landscape, from steep cliffs to fertile lands covered with lush nature.

GEORGETOWN, ASCENSION ISLAND
Lost in the heart of the Atlantic, this arid island with a lunar landscape is not as deserted as we may believe. Its position has made it a military base and strategic air bridge for the British and the Americans. The first garrison was established in 1815 to prevent any escape attempt by Napoleon, who was exiled nearly 1,000 kilometres away on the island of Saint Helena. The forts and barracks of the Royal Navy from those times can be visited. Intense marine biodiversity surrounds this island. It is one of the most important breeding sites for tropical marine birds and green turtles , which leave their footprints on the island’s magnificent beaches before heading to the Brazilian coastlines.

PRAIA
The capital of Cape Verde, Praia, is located on the southern tip of Santiago island. You can dally in the districts planted with Tamarind and Albizia trees. Above the harbour, the statue of Diogo Gomes pays homage to the man who discovered Cape Verde in 1460. A few streets away, in the old centre, the Ethnographic Museum presents the diversity of the archipelago’s cultural origins. Its historical building with transom windows is one of the city’s more unusual curiosities.