In his youth, Napoleon often skipped meals to save money for books

In his youth, Napoleon often skipped meals to save money for books. Napoleonic frugality looked like this: nothing in his room but a bed, an armchair and a mountain of books. The proprietress of the café where he took his meals, seeing his want, often treated the young man to free food and coffee. When Napoleon became First Consul, he sent this woman a gift of 50 louis d'or. By today's reckoning, depending on the year of minting and the weight of the coin, that sum would be the equivalent of anything from twenty thousand to fifty thousand euros