He traveled for more than two years, taking odd jobs to feed himself along the way and staying wherever he could find shelter, as he walked the 292-mile trek from his native Anchay to Paris. On the first day of tolerable weather in the spring of 1835, at the age of 13, Vuitton left home alone and on foot, bound for Paris.

A stubborn and headstrong child, antagonized by his stepmother and bored by the provincial life in Anchay, Vuitton resolved to run away for the bustling capital of Paris. As legend has it, Vuitton's new stepmother was as severe and wicked as any fairy-tale Cinderella villain. Vuitton's mother passed away when he was only 10 years old, and his father soon remarried. His father, Xavier, was a farmer, and his mother, Coronne Gaillard, was a milliner. Descended from a long-established working-class family, Vuitton's ancestors were joiners, carpenters, farmers and milliners. Vuitton was born on August 4, 1821, in Anchay, a small hamlet in eastern France's mountainous, heavily wooded Jura region. This provided a gateway for Vuitton to a class of elite and royal clientele who would seek his services for the duration of his life and far beyond, as the Louis Vuitton brand would grow into the world-renowned luxury leather and lifestyle brand it is today. When Napoleon assumed the title of Emperor of the French in 1852, his wife hired Louis Vuitton as her personal box-maker and packer.

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