Les Nouvelles Aventures de Vidocq
Based on the memoirs of Eugène-François Vidocq, this series follows the adventures of this former convict turned policeman in the early 19th century. In these new adventures, Vidocq comes up against a ravishing “baronne”, a formidable gang leader. The cases entrusted to Vidocq are not only police affairs, but also delicate, political and even diplomatic affairs.
Episodes
During the Hundred Days, counterfeit banknotes are in circulation. An alleged counterfeiter is arrested and sentenced to death, despite Vidocq's testimony. And he refuses to escape. Vidocq manages to delay the execution - by having the guillotine “removed” (!) - and joins forces with the Parisian underworld to track down the real forgers. They are the royalists who have replaced the Bank of France's banknote printing press with a fake one. Accompanied by the Baroness, Vidocq sets off for the Vendée to recover the real money board. The Baroness has been asked by Fouché to introduce Vidocq to the Chouan camp. But Vidocq is wary of her: won't she betray him yet again?...
Vidocq and the Baroness are in love, but the Baroness suddenly disappears. Fouché assigns Vidocq to protect Napoleon, against whom an assassination attempt is being planned. Vidocq heads north, where Napoleon will fight the decisive battle. Accompanying Vidocq is an emperor look-alike, a champion dagger-thrower who is supposed to distract the assassins. This look-alike, supposedly the victim of a poisoning attempt and then kidnapped, turns out to be the plot to assassinate Napoleon. Vidocq saves the emperor's life, then returns to Paris to discover the identity of the plot's leader...
The emperor has abdicated. Fouché, determined to remain minister, instructs Vidocq to bring the king's jewels back to Paris. Vidocq leaves for Belgium. Rejected, threatened with death, pursued, he takes refuge with the Baroness, but she drives him away and tries once again to kill him. He has no choice but to steal the jewels himself, hijacking the van carrying them from Ghent to Paris. But the trunk contains nothing but pebbles. The Baroness, who had been entrusted by the King with the sale of the jewels, had kept them for herself. Vidocq sets out to find the jewels and return them to the king. But he is arrested in Antwerp and is about to be put to the sword...
Decazes has replaced Fouché as Minister of Police. Vidocq, no longer head of the Sûreté, is warned that a plot is being hatched against the king: ultras want to replace Louis XVIII with his brother Charles. The leader of the plot is none other than the Baroness. To achieve her ends, she intends to use a healer to whom an archangel appears at night - an archangel who bears a striking resemblance to... the baroness (!) -. Vidocq, captured and held prisoner by the Baroness, escapes and tries to prevent the planned assassination attempt on the king. But he falls into the hands of the Austrian occupiers, who threaten to shoot him...
A former convict is murdered because he recognized an escaped convict in an army colonel. Vidocq infiltrates the colonel's organization. He deals with burglars, but also spies: goods stolen in Paris are sold in London and vice versa... but more often than not, confidential papers are stolen. An embassy secretary wants to forbid Vidocq to deal with the case. He is the head of the network. As for the so-called colonel, he has been replaced by the real colonel, who has gone mad, at the Toulon prison. Vidocq will try to make the opposite substitution...
A year after Napoleon's death, Vidocq must put an end to the all-too-frequent duels between royalists and Bonapartists. A local Bonapartist leader who has come to Paris to bring money to his leaders is provoked and killed in a rigged duel. Disguised as a businessman likely to finance the Bonapartist cause, Vidocq infiltrates the network preparing Napoleon II's return to France. The opponents are unaware that by joining this movement, they are denouncing themselves: the Baroness, who heads a secret political police force, has no choice but to have them arrested. Vidocq wants to save them. But he too is challenged to a duel...
The Prefect of Police, obeying the Confrérie des Vigilants, a secret society to which the Baroness belonged, dismissed Vidocq. He and his men set up a paper mill. They encounter hostility from the local population. The notary in charge of a wealthy banker's estate is killed by a parcel bomb. The vitriolic corpse of one of the notary's clerks is found near the paper mill. Vidocq, under suspicion, discovers that the corpses are actually those of beggars, stolen from the morgue. The notary and his two clerks, alive and well, are none other than the grand masters of the Confrérie, to whom the murdered banker bequeathed his fortune...
