To celebrate its 30th birthday, the Musée d'Orsay in Paris put on a show entitled "Spectaculaire Second Empire, 18521870" ("Spectacular Second Empire, 1852-1870"), on view through 16 January 2017, devoted to what in France is still considered a problematic era. This may surprise more seasoned visitors, such as this reviewer, who did not find this version of the Second Empire terribly different from that so magnificently presented by a predominantly American team back in 1978. This was a smaller, but equally beautifully presented show, whose accompanying book is more to be commended for its essays dealing with specific issues than for scholarly cataloguing of individual items. Abridged Publication Abstract