The daughter of Jacques Billet, a jeweller for the Crown of Poland, she had a lavish education and learnt Latin to a proficient enough level that she was able to translate the works of Horace and Virgil.

At the age of fifteen, she married a rich prosecutor, Simon Petit-Dufrenoy, at the Châtelet de Paris.

The subsequent year, she tried her hand with theatre, and put on a play, l'Amour exilé des Cieux ("Love Exiled from the Skies"), but she would owe her literary reputation to her popular elegies.

Her run of good luck ended when the French Revolution erupted and their home was set on fire, which would lead to the bankruptcy of her husband.

The Directoire offered no compensation to them, and the subsequent Consulate moved him to a badly paid job in Alexandria.