Six thousand history fans recreate Battle of Waterloo 200 years after the original
Bicentennial commemoration of epic routing of Napoleon replicates weapons, hardships, even food accurately - and no smartphones allowed
They came from all over Europe, an army of people who gave up their day jobs to fight the Battle of Waterloo once more, two centuries after the original.
The nearly 6,000 history enthusiasts who took part in a giant re-enactment of the clash on June 18, 1815, camped for days in the fields of Belgium to make the experience seem even more real.
The tiniest historical details were all respected, from the gilt-lined uniforms and plumed hats to the marching formations and even the food. Needless to say there was also a smartphone ban.
"I am a notary assistant in civil life and I love history. Here in the bivouac, I am 'Corporal La Gaule', Grenadier Corporal of the 8th line of the infantry regiment," said Romain Vadam, from Lille, northern France.
The re-enactors playing Napoleon's army came from France, Italy, Russia and elsewhere to Waterloo, these days a drab dormitory town 20km south of Brussels.
Napoleon himself - played for the past 10 years of re-enactments by Parisian lawyer Frank Samson, 47 - was camped out on the road to the industrial town of Charleroi while his forces were a little farther off in a rolling field.
The white tents of the rival British-Dutch bivouac were in a field near the Hougoumont Farmhouse, where 200 years ago the allies beat back a force of Frenchmen led by the emperor's brother General Jerome Bonaparte, at immense cost.
