15/08/2025
The Hotel Where Napoleon Lost his Virginity
33 rue Vauvilliers Paris 75001
Napoleon Bonapartre or Napoleon Born2Party?
In honor of the birthday of history’s favorite not-so-little General today, (and mine too!) I’ll share this delightfully naughty detail about his first lover.
Napoleon had a hot and steamy s*x life with his OG wife Josephine (look up their raunchy love letters if you want to read 18th century s**t lit) but we can thank a certain Mademoiselle Deschamps for making a man out of the scrawny 18 year old with greasy hair and thick Italian/Corsican accent.
In November 1787, teenage N.B. came to Paris to finish military training. He must have been lonely because one evening he left his hotel on the rue du Four-Saint-Honoré and wandered around the Palais Royale neighborhood, which was the equivalent of a bourgeois red light district at the time.
He encountered a young woman and began chatting with her about her life and what brought her to this less than savoury lifestyle. Finding her easy to talk to, he invited her back to his hotel room; and the rest was history.
Sha-wing!
He later would write in his journal about “The First Time”, which you can read for yourself if you do the research.
Napoleon stayed at this hotel for several months and was described as shy, awkward, and a little sad. He signed his name in the register using the Italian-ized Napolione Buonaparte.
According to the owner, he only left his room (3rd floor, room #9, see photos) for meals which he took at a nearby deli. The hotel was destroyed in 1914 and the north section of the street was on razed to create pavillons 1&2 of the old Les Halles centralized Paris markets.
Today the street is named Rue Vauvilliers and the exact placement of where Napoleon lost his V card is located in a children’s park.
Napoleon didn’t leave us any further juicy details of this important life event but he did grow out of his awkwardness not long after.
Only 17 years later he would declare himself Emperor of France.
