The real Battle of Waterloo was carnage, with 47,000 soldiers killed or wounded, and survivors left wading through blood past the mutilated bodies and limbs of their colleagues. The risks for the re-enactors were minimal despite the pyrotechnics during the big shows, but they said the excitement was real.
"We feel the adrenaline mounting when we march against the enemy," said Sebastien Vigneron, a 27-year-old Belgian with a rugby player's physique who went by the name "Grenadier Le Roc".
Life in the bivouac was also kept as realistic as possible.
Romain Vadam said all modern machinery was banned from the camp, especially mobile phones. The food was also historically accurate, despite the fact that the exhausted troops at the time in 1815 complained bitterly about their provisions in the run-up to the battle.
"Most of the time we eat vegetable soup that has been cooked on a wood fire, because the soldiers' rations consisted of vegetables and smoked meat.
"They used to liven up the soup with black powder, the powder from their gun cartridges, to replace salt or spices that they lacked," he said.
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