trips through Europe, Louis Bohne came back to Reims in March 1803 with a book full of orders from the largest merchants and most important individual buyers. In the summer of 1804, the Clicquot champagne business first began to grow. In October 1805, seven years after their wedding, Francois fell suddenly ill with a fever similar to typhoid. He died some days later, at the age of 30. Both Barbe-Nicole and Philippe were devastated by François' death. Philippe Clicquot announced his intention of liquidating the company. The young widow (veuve in French) however decided to take over her husband's business, becoming one of the first business women in the early 1800s to run an international business in a world dominated by men. Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin was born in 1777, a few years before the French Revolution. Her childhood was influenced by her father, Baron Nicolas Ponsardin, a successful textile maker, who was involved in both business and politics. Formerly a royalist, he switched political positions to turn against the monarchy. Thanks to this move, Barbe-Nicole's family escaped the Revolution unscathed. When Barbe-Nicole married François Clicquot, she was 21 years old. When her husband died in October 1805, she was 27 and mother of their six-year-old daughter and only child, Clémentine. In the early 19th century, the Napoleonic Code denied women civil and political rights, prohibiting them from working, voting, earning money, or entering schools and universities without the consent of their husband or father. At that time, widows were the only women in French society to be free and to be allowed to run their own business. When Louis Bohne came back to Reims from St.Petersburg, one month after François Clicquot's funeral, 110,000 bottles of champagne had been shipped during the course of 1805, nearly double the preceding year, thanks to his business trips. The Clicquot champagne business was promising. Against all expectations and considerable opposition, the widow Clicquot wanted to take over her husband's business. She went to her father-in-law with a proposal and convinced him to let her manage the business Philippe agreed to her proposal under one condition: Barbe-Nicole would go through an apprenticeship, after which she would be able to run the business herself, if she could prove that she was capable. Barbe-Nicole Clicquot flouted every convention to become the first woman to take over a champagne house and the first female champagne producer. She