Today's bon bon and a few tidbits about Empress Josephine! With my pictures, too!

Josephine in her later years at Malmaison

She was a woman who loved fashion and spent money like water. She was married to a man suspected of being more royalist than was prudent. She almost went to prison, too. But used her charms to persuade a few French men to keep her and her two children safe. But there is more!

Empress Josephine was a setter of style, the love of her husband Napoleon's life—and his torment. We know much of her legend, but there is much about her that was kept discreetly secret.

She had terrible teeth. Black, in fact. And you never see her in portraits smiling.

She took three hours each day to bathe and dress. Her boudoir in Malmaison was the place she took her breakfast and often, her luncheon too.

She never visited a military hospital as she claimed the humours would kill her.

Portrait of Josephine that hangs at Malmaison

She died of a throat infection on the very day Napoleon set foot in Cannes as he escaped from Elba and marched north.

Here I am outside at Malmaison!

The bee is the emblem (or logo) of Napoleon and Josephine! This emblem is cemented in the walkways leading to Malmaison!

One picture of Josephine's enormous boudoir.

Her gardens, lovingly tended by gardeners of the French National Heritage.

She loved animals and kept a menagerie at Malmaison.

She loved flowers, especially roses and Napoloen even had cuttings from England imported to her during wartime!

She had no children by Napoleon but by her first husband, she had two. Today, many of the royal houses of Europe are descended from those two children.

She died at Malmaison and is buried close by in the Ruiel. Next to her is buried her daughter, Hortense.