During the reign of Napléon III France was celebrating Napoléon's birthday as a national holiday, “Saint Napoléon”. However, this was already in decline in the

During the reign of Napléon III France was celebrating Napoléon's birthday as a national holiday, “Saint Napoléon”. However, this was already in decline in the 1860s, as Napoléon's role was eventually re-evaluated, and the centenary in 1869 (which coincided with a severe crisis of the authority of Napoléon III) wasn't celebrated nationally any more. As this was also soon followed by the end of the Second Empire (as an effect of the Franco-Prussian war), this holiday inherently connected with the dynastic ambitions of Napoléon III wasn't any more. Edit: If interested in the subject, there's a thesis (in French) by Émile Kern, “Représentations et images contrastées de Napoléon dans les commémorations : de 1869 à 2009”, Université de Montpellier 3, 2011; http://www.theses.fr/2011MON30093 http://www.theses.fr/2011MON30093