Before Coco Chanel became famous, she had worked for a time as a cabaret performer in Vichy, France's famous mineral-water spa resort. She usually wore a sequined dress onstage, bare-shouldered and backless, with a rather seductive look to it. A girl named Gabrielle had gone to Vichy with her at the time. She was about the same age as Chanel, but was actually Chanel's niece.
Chanel's performing career had not gone well, and vocal and dance lessons both cost money. Making a living was a serious problem.
So Gabrielle became a mineral-water seller at the public drinking hall. Dressed in a white uniform, she poured cups of mineral water at a strange fenced-in stand and handed them to people seeking healing.
Paris had similar public drinking halls. Everyone now knew that the water from the Seine was unclean. Ordinary citizens fetched water from fountains, and two buckets cost two sous, no small burden for an ordinary family.
Those with a little more money bought mineral water and soda water to drink. Soda water had been invented by the British, and Georgiana often drank a mineral water called "Luxury."
Josephine drank mineral water. There were many sources of mineral water, and Josephine often switched between them. Thus, compared with soda water's single variety, Paris had more mineral-water brands. With a wider selection came competition, and in order to attract customers, mineral-water sellers began providing service to those who came to drink.
These sellers were almost all young and beautiful. To maintain relationships with customers and make them return to buy water from them, they sometimes behaved in ways that resembled flirting.
Napoleon himself knew not to choose a wife from among women who flirted, but his soldiers did not. A grenadier named Gobain thought a mineral-water seller named Inas was interested