Balzac’s fictional scene of one of Napoleon’s old soldiers telling tales by the fireside, in Le Médecin de campagne (The Country doctor) is often given in lieu of an explanation for the diffusion of Napoleonic myth in the French countryside during the first half of the 19th century. Yet, paying more attention to the manner in which such tales were conceived and received can allow us to re-evaluate this cliché of romantic literature. The veterans’ stories, because they had to adapt to the expectations of rural populations, participated of the elaboration of popular and necessarily plural memories of the Napoleonic wars, memories which came increasingly into contact with the national Napoleonic legend, especially during the Second Empire. Before their mise-en-scène by imperial propaganda, the real influence Napoleon’s old soldiers had in the countryside can be located elsewhere, in particular in their participation in rural national guards during Louis-Philippe’s 1830-48 monarchy.