A gilded ghost of empire rests on display — "L'Opale," the ornate horse-drawn carriage that bore Empress Joséphine away from Napoleon and into her final years at the Château de la Malmaison following their 1809 divorce. This early 20th-century black-and-white photographic postcard captures the vehicle in stunning detail: its fringed canopy, elaborate ironwork scroll brackets, richly upholstered interior visible through the open door, and grand spoked wheels that once rolled over the roads of imperial France. The Château de la Malmaison, just west of Paris, became Joséphine's refuge and ultimately the place of her death in 1814 — and "L'Opale" stands as one of its most poignant relics, a literal vehicle of heartbreak. Published by the celebrated L'Abeille house of Paris, this card is number 12 in their Malmaison series, printed with bilingual French and English captions — suggesting an international tourist audience already fascinated by Napoleonic history.