In the spring of 2026, Régis Jonckheere, FECN member for the municipality of Coudekerque-Branche, will be offering a new series of lectures devoted to a number of key episodes in Napoleonic history in the north of France.
The three events organised between April and May will highlight a variety of themes, from the Flemish volunteers involved in the revolutionary campaigns to Napoleon's vast plan to invade England.
Three conferences to explore Napoleonic history in Flanders and on the Opal Coast
The first meeting will be held on 17 April 2026 in Bergues with a conference on 4th Battalion of Northern Volunteers, known as the “Bergues Battalion” (1792-1798). This talk will review the career of 473 young volunteers from the Bergues district, who were involved in revolutionary campaigns before joining the 13th half-brigade then General Bonaparte's troops. From Italy to the Egyptian Expedition, this conference will retrace the singular destiny of these men from Flemish villages.
The 25 April 2026, as part of the Fortified Town Days à Calais, Régis Jonckheere will be talking about Napoleon's Italian troops in Calais (1803-1807). He will mention the presence of 5,200 Italian soldiers, commanded successively by the generals Domenico Pino and Pietro Teulié, who came to garrison the Opal Coast as part of Napoleon's plan to invade England.
Finally, the 23 May 2026, a third conference will be held at Musée de Plein Air de Villeneuve-d'Ascq on the Boulogne camp and the plan to invade England (1803-1805). This speech will serve as a reminder of the scale of this extraordinary military and logistical undertaking: 30,000 trees felled, 2,000 ships built and tens of thousands of soldiers assembled, before the project was abandoned and the Grande Armée departed to Ulm then Austerlitz.
An active contribution to promoting Napoleonic heritage
Through his ongoing commitment, Régis Jonckheere is actively helping to bring the Napoleonic legacy to life and raise awareness of it in northern France, particularly in Flanders and along the Channel coast. His lectures help to disseminate a history rooted in the region, highlighting episodes that are sometimes little-known but closely linked to the Napoleonic epic.
This dynamic is part of a wider continuum. Visit 2023, Régis Jonckheere had also worked with the International Napoleonic Society at its conference in Ostend, under the chairmanship of J. David Markham and with Prince Charles Napoleon as Honorary Chairman. At this event, a commemorative plaque had been affixed to the Fort Napoléon, in the town's port.
Through these initiatives, the members of the Destination Napoléon are continuing their essential work of transmitting, mediating and promoting European historical heritage linked to the Napoleonic era.