Memorial to a Frenchman

Last weekend we met up with a couple of old college friends of mine John and Martin together with Maria and Julia their "better halves". Regular readers of this Blog (are there any?) will recall that we meet up two/three times a year. This time it was the turn for us to meet up in the Bromley area. We went for lunch at "The Thai" Chislehurst; excellent food albeit service was a tad slow. Still we had a good time and will happily go back there again.
After lunch we went for a walk around Chislehurst Common and the duck ponds.

Further on the walk we came to a rare site in England, a memorial to a Frenchman and a royal one at that! Napoleon III and Empress Eugine, who were exiled to Chislehurst, and made Camden Place their temporary residence. The Emperor and Empress soon established a varied social life at Camden Place (now Chislehurst Golf Club) and entertained much royalty and nobility there. The Emperor and Empress' only child, Louis, Prince Imperial, was also residing in Chislehurst, although he was stationed at the Royal Woolwich Military Academy as an officer cadet in 1872. He went with the British Army to South Africa nd fought in the Zulu Wars when his party was ambushed at the Umbanzi River. The people of Chislehurst erected this memorial to him.

It was not all history on the walk, we did see some interesting funghi

Then it was back to Mellish Mansions for tea and cake before our friends departed for home.