Here is a good summary written by Victor Despontin on Quorum in response to "why do the French love Napoleon"....
This is a 3 layered cake.
First, French distinguished Bonaparte from Napeleon. Bonaparte is the general from the revolution and the republique that kicked the English out of Toulon, that restored peace within the country, stopping revolutionary unrest, made a victorious army out of the rags that was the army in Italy, fighting the Austrian like a Corporal in front line at Arcole bridge, who went to Egypt with scientists and made the world discover a new civilization. Without Bonaparte, Egyptology would not exist.
On the other hand, Napoleon is the emperor of the French. Layer 2 is the Napoleon who created France modern state and institutions. He gave France the Code Civil, essentially the codification of its laws in writing. Some have changed with the evolution of society, but many are still applicable. For what come to my mind at the moment, and just to give couple of other examples, several still famous colleges or institutions were created during his reign as well as the medal system to reward civil and military actions.
Last is the Napoleon conqueror of Europe. French are proud of the victories, the glory and the spread of revolutionary ideas across Europe. The French tend to omit anything that happen after 1812. Waterloo would not exist in France if it was not for ABBA and the British that love waving the name as soon as they can. Ask what the expressions c'est la Bérézina or c'est Trafalgar mean in French today. Most importantly, French prefer to forget the millions of dead, the loss of a generation that will make demography in France stops during the XIX century while the population of the rest of Europe will continue to grow and catch up with France.