After an affair with a lieutenant opened her eyes to the wider world,[5] she became an acrobat and trick rider in a provincial circus,[6] she travelled to Paris where she made her debut as an actress at the theater La Tour d'Auvergne,[7] under the name of Marguerite Bellanger (the surname of an uncle).

[10] Bellanger was a favourite model of the sculptor Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, who represented her as an allegory of spring in an elegant terracotta bust in which is today in the Musée Carnavalet in Paris.

[11] In a painting by Édouard Manet in 1863, Olympia, the artist endeavoured to evoke an odalisque, who receives a bouquet of flowers brought by her maid.

[12] In June 1863, while on a carriage ride in Saint-Cloud Park, Emperor Napoleon III spotted Bellanger sheltering from the rain beneath a tree.

[13] Amongst his numerous presents, the Emperor gave her two houses, one at 57 rue des Vignes, Passy,[14] the other at Saint-Cloud, in the park of Montretout, which had a back door to the gardens of the castle.

In February 1864, Marguerite Bellanger gave birth to a son; whom she named Charles Jules Auguste François Marie Leboeuf.

[18] The presence of the couple William Kulbach and Marguerite Bellanger is recorded in Monchy-Saint-Éloi (Oise), France in the census of 1872.

Marguerite Bellanger died at the age of 48 on 23 November 1886 after contracting a cold during a walk in the park of the castle at Villeneuve-sous-Dammartin.

The coat of arms of Marguerite Bellanger is reproduced on the chocolates: a daisy with a heart of silver and gold petals.

The praline "with four spices" (cloves, cinnamon, pepper and nutmeg) echos the qualities that the second Empire sought to give her: a varnish of heart, a spicy charm and an imperial dress.