 She should not be confused with the vaudeville actress also named Eugénie Fougère, although the two knew each other, mixed in the same circles, and even lived in the same street in Paris for a while.Fougère was born in 1861 in Chambon-sur-Voueize, a small town in the Limousin region in central France.In 1880, she left Chambon-sur-Voueize at the age of 19 and went to Montluçon where she began to work as a waitress and maid.