Over twenty years later, Gabrielle reminisces about the lifestyle enjoyed by the nobility in the years that immediately preceded the Revolution:

The Duchess took me to parties given by her friends. Some were regular dinners, some informal suppers after the play, the ballet or the opera, and others musical gatherings, where both professional and amateur performers displayed their talents. I was often pressed to sing, which, out of shyness, I avoided as much as I could without appearing affected or ungracious. Impromptu dances often concluded the pleasures of the evening. The Bishop of Autun, Monsieur de Talleyrand, who has since achieved such fame as a diplomat, once said: “Who has not known that time has not known the sweetness of living.” It was indeed sweet, although that sweetness was not to last.

Manners in good society were very modest. It would have been the height of insolence for a gentleman to touch, even briefly, any part of a sofa occupied by a lady, let alone to sit next to her, or to offer her his arm for a walk. Only husbands or brothers were allowed those familiarities. Lovers avoided them at all costs. The English custom of shaking hands, especially between persons of different sexes, was considered so vulgar as to be ridiculous. Conversations, however, were freer than anything I had heard before in company.

Gabrielle, who is not yet twenty, enjoys all of this. She goes riding in Villers's country estate of Vaucelles, she meets him at the outdoors parties given by their friends, she dances with him.

I was a Baroness, albeit a penniless one. I only associated with aristocrats. Not all were wealthy, but all lived in a world of luxury, of idleness, of parties, of pleasure, which was becoming mine.

For how long? The poor are starving, the people of Paris are restless. The days of the sweetness of living are numbered.



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Prior posts in the series:

Return to Fontfreyde
Cottage life
Arriving in Paris
Dressing for Court
Discovering Versailles
The presentation to Marie-Antoinette
The Royal Chapel
The Queen's Bedchamber
Paris Fashions