La folle histoire du dépucelage de Napoléon au Palais Royal
Une drôle d’histoire racontée par Napoléon lui-même.
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November 1787. Napoleon Bonaparte was still only a young 18-year-old Corsican who had just landed in Paris to complete his military training. The man who would become Emperor of the French in 1804 was still far from having the presence of a general-in-chief or statesman: skinny, not very handsome and still not very confident about his abilities (on this point, things would evolve quickly!), the teenager returned from a six-month leave on his native land and found himself quite alone in Paris. It was in this context that, on the evening of 22 November 1787, he recorded in his diary a very intimate episode in his life: his meeting with a "fille de joie" from the galleries of the Palais Royal.
Bonaparte au pont d'Arcole, by Antoine-Jean Gros (ca. 1801), Louvre Museum, Paris.
On a cool, rainy autumn evening, as he wanders alone between the Boulevard des Italiens and the Palais Royal, the future Emperor comes across a woman whose appearance appeals to him. One of the many daughters of joy among the many girls of joy strolling around the neighborhood, this frail-looking young woman looks nothing like the others. A little shy, calm, almost nonchalant, this prostitute named Mademoiselle Deschamps immediately cracks the second lieutenant who, by all accounts, is still a virgin.
A short discussion in the middle of the street is enough for the two young men to decide to take things a little further: only a few minutes after exchanging her first words with the second lieutenant, the young prostitute offers to take him to the Hôtel de Cherbourg, the small hotel where the teenager occupies a modest room. "But what will we do there? "Napoleon then asks her. "Come on, we'll heat it up and you'll satisfy your pleasure," replied Miss Deschamps! To our great disappointment, Napoleon did not tell the rest of the story, but we have enough clues to imagine it...
