Why was the return of Napoleon's body called the "return of the ashes"?

by SchreiberBike

In reading about this I was trying to figure out at what point he was cremated, because it's called "ashes" (cendres), but he was not. Is this just a French idiom?

ducdeguiche

The term "ashes" is indeed a French idiom to designate the mortal remains of someone.

(Source :Dictionnaries like the Littré or the Dictionnaire de l'Académie Française. http://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/academie8/cendre)

The use of the term" ashes" is a poetic reference to the Roman and Greek tradition of burning the dead and keeping the ashes in an urn.

So yes, Napoléon was not cremated. You can read here a memorandum of his placement in coffins (four in total !) :

https://imgur.com/a/cDNtJ