Marie-Anne Detourbay

Marie-Anne Detourbay (18 January 1837 – 15 January 1908) was a French demimondaine and salon hostess. She was a famous courtesan during the Second Empire, and also hosted a literary salon which had some influence during the Second Empire and the Third Republic. She is also known for her relationship with Jules Lemaître.

Early life Marie-Anne Detourbay, was born on rue Neuve (later rue Gambetta), Reims into a poor, large family. Her mother was a cloth burler and her father unknown. From age eight she was employed to rinse champagne bottles.

When Detourbey's mother married a man named Rixe, who was a carpenter, life became easier. Marie-Anne was able to pursue an education up to the age of 13 when Rixe died.

Marie-Anne took the first opportunity she could to leave Reims, which presented itself when a friend invited her to move to Paris together. She continued to use her mother's surname of Detourbey, but at times wrote it as "De Tourbay" or "Detourbay".

It was at this point that she had a documented exchange with Alexander Dumas fils:

Jeanne: "You know I have come to Paris to educate myself. I want to learn."

Dumas fils: "And why? For what need had so pretty a child of education?"

Jeanne: "Because one day Paris must be at my feet."

Career as Courtesan and Salon Hostess Early in her time in Paris, Detourbay met Marc Fournier, the director at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin. He launched her career as a courtesan and actress. Her career as an actress was short lived as she realized her strengths lie elsewhere. It was through her connections to Fournier and Dumas fils that she met other influential figures of the time. The publisher Arthur Meyer became close friends with Detourbey and soon coined her nickname "The Lady of the Violets." close to the Champs-Élysées.

Through her best friend, actress Josephine Clemence Ennery, nicknamed "Gisette"(fr), she met Gustave Flaubert and Khalil-Bey, who fell in love with her. From Tunis, where he went to write Salammbô, Flaubert wrote:

Around 1862, she met Ernest Baroche (fr), the son of senior ministerial civil servant Jules Baroche, who also fell in love with her. Ernest himself had been made another Minister of Napoleon III, Master of Petitions on the State Council and Director of Foreign Trade at the Ministry of Agriculture. Detourbay and Baroche would have become engaged but, as Commander of the 12th mobile battalion of the Seine, he was killed in action at the Battle of Le Bourget on 30 October 1870.

Between 1880 and 1885, through Arsène Houssaye, she met the critic Jules Lemaître, who was 15 years younger than her. Lemaître founded the Ligue de la patrie française in 1899 and became its first president. As monarchists, they put their political hopes in General Boulanger and became passionate anti-Dreyfusards. and shortly before her death on 15th January 1908, Detourbay helped Maurras and Léon Daudet found the Royalist newspaper L'Action française by donating 100,000 gold francs.

The Countess of Loynes was buried in Montmartre Cemetery, alongside her parents.

Residences Reims 58, rue neuve, (now rue Gambetta), from her birth in 1837 16, rue du Cadran-Saint-Pierre (in 1852); 8, rue de la Grosse-Écritoire (in 1854, middle-class pension).

Paris Place Royale (Place des Vosges); Rue de Vendôme (in 1857); 28, rue de l'Arcade (8th arrondissement) (in 1865); 53, avenue d'Iéna (in 1886); 152, avenue des Champs-Elysées (8th arrondissement) (from 1896).