Napoleon's on his way

The Battle of Waterloo took place on 18th June 1815 and the infamous defeat of Napoleon is re-enacted every year on the original Waterloo battlefield.

Volunteer regiments from all over Europe arrive in fabulous full period gear, complete with weapons and horses, to take part in the two day event.

Villages of the Allies and Napoleonic bivouacs and are set up on and around the battlefield and you can visit the camps to see what daily life was like, and watch demonstrations inlcuding the firing of canons and muskets.

On the Sunday there is a big re-enactment of the battles of Plancenoit and Hougoumont. After the battle, troops retreat towards the Hameau du Lion in a great procession.

The re-enactment takes place next weekend, but as we quite often do on a Sunday, we went up to Hameau du Lion this afternoon and were surprised to see Napoleon's bivouac. The troops had marched from a town south of Waterloo this weekend and set up camp, so it made a perfect blip opportunity.

Next weekend we plan to go and see the Allies bivouac at the foot of the Butte du Lion and then on Sunday we're going to go and watch the battle, so there'll be more battle related blips to follow