Catholic church of Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Voyage (Our Lady of Good Way) is located in the heart of Cannes - across from the Palais des Festivals. However, not on the Croisette, and a block away, so many tourists pass by. Meanwhile, the church is at the starting point of the brightest events of European history of the beginning of the XIX century - the triumphant march of Napoleon to Paris, where he began his last takeoff, the famous "hundred days".

At this point in the XVI century to protect the city from the plague was built a chapel. It was called the Notre Dame des Sables (Our Lady of the Sands - due to the fact that a number were dunes), the Notre-Dame-du-Bor de Mer (Our Lady of the Sea Coast), the Notre-Dame-de Bon-Port (Our Lady of Good Harbor). Nothing special about it was not: the fishing hut at the dunes.

But here, under the walls of the village chapel in the desert, camped, he threw fires and spent the night of 1 March 2, 1815 Napoleon escaped from exile on Elba. With a force of more than a thousand people, he landed in the nearby Gulf of Juan, on barely passable, swampy road along the sea and reached the Cannes bivouac located here. Researchers outline the approximate boundaries of the camp from the north and east - where now lie the streets of Antibes and Belge. With great certainty assume that the tent of Napoleon stood on the site of the present house number 15 on the street Belge. The soldiers wrapped in blankets and slept on the sand, the strength of the bread and fried meat on a fire (products requisitioned for them from local bakers and butchers then mayor Augustine Bullets - Cannes became the first city to have passed over to the side of Napoleon without any resistance).

In the morning the Emperor withdrew from his seat and went to Paris via Grasse, Castellane, Sisteron, Grenoble, Lyon. Because of the small chapel of Cannes began the famous "Route Napoléon" (now on it goes take the N 85).

All this says a memorial plaque on the wall of the church of Notre-Dame de Bon Voyage, which faces the street outside coincidental called Bivouac Napoleon. Perhaps the dedication of the Church of Our Lady of Good Way, too, is no accident. (Usually it is because the local fishermen pray here before going to the sea.)

The church itself was built in 1879, designed by architect Laurent Cannes Viana at the site of the former chapel, when it ceased to accommodate the faithful. Powerful structure of gray stone in the Neo-Romanesque style is not actually completed: because of lack of money and were not built due under the bell tower of the project and two more towers. But even without them, the church looks quite impressive and harmonious. Inside, it is worth paying attention to the spectacular stained-glass windows in the transept depicting the stoning of St. Stephen and the massacre at the Lerins monastery (Saracens kill monks). A stained-glass windows in the choir - a modern work, they replaced those that were destroyed during the Allied landings in August 1944.

The new church, too, is a place of important events here in 1882, was crowned Count Arthur de Vogue, and in 1931 funeral of Emmanuel d'Orléans, Duke of Vendôme.