Trivia

Had a trapeze installed in her home gymnasium as her preferred way to stay in shape.

French novelist and memoirist, usually preoccupied with erotic themes. Married the pornographer Willy who helped publish her four "Claudine" novels (1900-1902). For a while earned money as a music hall artist. Through her second marriage, she became a leading Parisian socialite and began writing novels of great sensitivity, including "Sido" (1929) and "Gigi" (1944).

One daughter: Colette Renée de Jouvenel des Ursins, born July 3 1913, died 1981.

Loved cats, and played them in the theatre. She once played the part of a sphinx, and later a cat in the play La Chatte Amoureuse ("The Amourous Cat").

Mother of second unit director 'Colette de Jouvenel'.

When she spotted Audrey Hepburn on the Monaco seafront in 1951 she exclaimed "Voilà ma Gigi!" and insisted she be cast in the Broadway production of Gigi.