Stop 2: A rose by another name. 
Now, let me introduce you to Joséphine – a woman with both style and substance. 
Just like Napoleon, Joséphine also grew up on an island. She was born in 1763 on the island of Martinique in the Caribbean where her family owned a sugar plantation. And, just like Napoleon, she also spoke French with an accent. Perhaps they gravitated towards each other because their unusual backgrounds and accents marked them both out as outsiders within the cliquey French community. 
Joséphine was actually christened Marie-Josèphe Rose de Tascher de la Pagerie and her family called her ‘Rose’. She adopted the name Josephine only after meeting Napoleon – he was not fond of the name ‘Rose’ and preferred ‘Josephine’. And so it was. ‘Rose’ was, however, a very fitting name for a woman who would become famous for her rose collection and who is sometimes remembered as the ‘mother of roses’. 
To remedy the family’s failing fortunes, Josephine’s aunt, Desirée, set up an advantageous marriage for Josephine with the French aristocrat and politician, Alexandre de Beauharnais, who was also born on Martinique. Sixteen-year old Joséphine’s marriage to the older Alexandre was not a happy one but they nevertheless had two children, a son, Eugène, and a daughter, Hortense. (Hortense, incidentally, would later marry Napoleon’s brother, Louis, in 1802.) Through Alexandre, young Joséphine was introduced to the world of courtly living in Paris. Her marriage may not have been happy, but it was a certain  kind of ‘finishing school’ that extended her networks and initiated her great sophistication with fashion and the arts. 
Of course, when revolutionary fervour began to sweep across France, Joséphine’s close association with the aristocracy was very nearly her downfall. In March 1794, during the French Revolution’s ‘Reign of Terror’, Alexandre de Beauharnais was arrested and jailed. Within weeks Josephine was also thrown into prison. After a few long months, Alexandre de Beauharnais was beheaded by the guillotine. Joséphine seemed set for a similarly gruesome fate except for the fall and execution of Robespierre, an event that ended the Reign of Terror and resulted in her release from prison.
After Alexandre’s death, a new law fortuitously allowed Josephine to recover the possessions of her husband. She quickly became one of Paris’s great society hostesses organising soirées attended by the powerbrokers of post-revolution France. She became known as one of Les merveilleuses, meaning ‘the marvellous ones’, a small coterie of très chic society women. By all accounts, Joséphine was a dazzling creature. A charismatic presence, she demanded attention and cut a dashing figure through her flair for fashion. She was a graceful woman, with a lovely silvery voice and a svelte figure. She had silky brown hair and hazel eyes.