EP 121: Paris History Avec A Hemingway (Liane de Pougy)

Liane de Pougy at the end of her life was labeled “from whore to nun” but I am getting ahead of myself.  

Anne Marie Chassaigne was born June 2, 1869 in La Flèche in the Loire and raised in Brittany. On July 15, 1886, at 17 she married Joseph Armand Henri Pourpee who was a naval officer living in Marseille. Joseph would be gone a lot and Anne Marie filled her time with another man. 

Suffering from frequent attacks by her husband that left scars on her chest for the rest of her life, it all culminated one night when he discovered her with her lover. He pulled out his pistol and shot at her, nicking her wrist. Anne Marie couldn’t take it much more, sold her piano, left her son with his father and his parents, and moved to Paris. 

In Paris, she began taking dance lessons from Marie-Therese Mariquita and changed her name to Liane de Pougy. Dancing in the cabarets of Paris she was quickly noticed for her striking beauty standing out in any crowd she stood in. Playwright Henri Meilhac was drawn to her and got her a job dancing at the Folies Bergeres in 1884 and also living the life of one of the most popular courtesans of the time.

In 1908, she met the Romanian Prince Georges Ghika who was the nephew of Queen Nathalie of Serbia. Fifteen years younger than her and a prince by name but without much money to his name. The two married on June 8, 1910, and the next day it was on the front page of the New York Times. “Paris professional beauty marries Prink Ghika, who championed her”.  

The Prince came across her one day in Saint Germain while being laughed at by a group of people, Liane was wearing a rather large hat and people gathered around her pointing and laughing on the mean streets of St Germain. He stepped in to uphold her honor and got into a scuffle resulting in his arrest for assault. 

In 1928 they went to Grenoble where she met Mother Superior Marie Xavier of the Sainte-Agnes Asylyn and institute for disabled children. She threw herself into raising money for the institute and tapping into her wealthy friends back in Paris to assist. Staying closely aligned with the church she later in 1943 took the vow of Saint Dominic and changed her name again to Sister Anne Marie de La Penitence.

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