Lyon's old quarter lay on the right bank of the Saône River. It looked rather like Florence, with red rooftops everywhere.
This city, which had prospered greatly from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries, must have been influenced by the Renaissance. It was full of Italian charm, while the outskirts were dotted with French-style châteaux.
Since Josephine had voiced such fierce objections, Georgiana would only be making herself unwelcome by staying at Fesch's home. So that very evening, Georgiana took her maids and Madame Lannes to lodge at an inn within Lyon.
She changed into men's clothing, which made it more convenient to move about, though it was her steward Gaudin who communicated with the innkeeper.
Because 450 Italian delegates had arrived, nearly every decent inn in Lyon was full. Just as she was preparing to settle for an ordinary room used by traveling merchants and get through the night, Madame Récamier appeared.
She brought them to her own estate and settled them in very comfortably. In the middle of the night, Gaudin rode out. When he returned, he brought two squadrons of cavalry to stand guard outside the estate, led by none other than Major General Louis-Narbonne-Lara.
These soldiers were not Imperial Guard. They seemed more like troops borrowed from the Lyon garrison, and their horses were clearly nowhere near as splendid as those of the Imperial Guard.
What the First Consul of Corsica had meant, between the lines, was that aside from the review, Georgiana had better not attend any social events, including the inauguration ceremony for the chief executive of the Italian Republic that he was holding at the Jesuit college.
He had deliberately arranged the inauguration after the military parade, perhaps to convey a message of military intimidation. An ordinary woman would probably have been worrying