Debussy was the oldest of five children, and his father Manuel-Achille Debussy, owned a china shop in and his mother, Victorine Manoury Debussy, was a seamstress. In 1867 the family moved to Paris but Debussy's pregnant mother fled in 1870 with Claude to his aunt's home in Cannes to flee the Franco-Prussian War. This is when and where Debussy at the age of seven began piano lessons paid for by his aunt with Italian violinist Cerutti. In 1871 he got the attention of Marie Mauté de Fleurville, (Leon Vallas (March 2007). Claude Debussy: His Life and Works. Lightning Source Inc. pp. 4–. ISBN 978-1-4067-5912-9. Retrieved 27 April 2011) who claimed to have been an apprentice of Chopin. Although there is no real evidence to support this statement,
