15 Facts About Marguerite Gourdan

Marguerite Gourdan's brothel was the most exclusive in Paris during that age, and Gourdan was arguably the most famous of her profession.

Marguerite Gourdan was the second child of 10 to 12 siblings.

Marguerite Gourdan met a gentleman officer at the Guards, with whom she had a daughter.

Later that year, Marguerite Gourdan opened a house of prostitution in the rue Sainte-Anne.

Marguerite Gourdan's teasing eyes gave off features which seldom failed in their purpose and manners, and her discourse announced that it would be of advantage in a theatre more worthy of its charms and its spirit.

Marguerite Gourdan did not consider taking a new partner and continued to manage the establishment alone.

Marguerite Gourdan quickly set up a network of procurers in both the provinces and the capital.

Marguerite Gourdan enacted twenty articles that the residents must adhere to.

Outside the house, Marguerite Gourdan had many women who worked in private apartments, ready to go to men who did not want to go to rue Dussoubs, or to accompany them to "suppers" in town.

Marguerite Gourdan did not only procure female for male customers, but females for female customers, as well as male prostitutes for male customers.

Marguerite Gourdan is credited with designing a wooden phallus called the "nuns heirloom".

Apart from prostitution, Marguerite Gourdan provided rooms to partners who were not prostitutes but who had difficulties finding a safe place to meet because their relationship was not accepted, for example married women and their lovers.

Amongst Marguerite Gourdan's clients were royalty, the nobility, academics and clergymen.

Marguerite Gourdan had a villa at Villiers-le-Bel where she sent her sick or pregnant prostitutes.

An effigy of Marguerite Gourdan was mounted on a donkey with all the decorum prescribed; then the manikin was beaten of importance at the designated junction to the booing and licentious cries of the populace.