She was deeply attached to her governess, and her mother's demand that de Genlis be replaced, though without success, was reportedly a cause of great worry for her.

Adelaide received painting lessons from Pierre-Joseph Redouté and produced some highly regarded botanical studies as a result.

She was described as completely devoted to her brother and his family: united with her sister-in-law in their mutual love and concern for him, and a second mother to his children.

During the Bourbon Restoration, Palais-Royal was described as a center of high society social life in the capital, and reportedly, despite the fact that custom dictated that she as an unmarried "spinster" was expected to live in the background, it was she rather than her more reserved sister-in-law who took the role of hostess.

Louis Philippe, in turn, relied upon her intelligence and loyalty, made her his confidant and listened to her advice, and consequently, she came to exert great political influence upon him.

She was not on good terms with the reigning Bourbon family; because of their reactionary ideas, and also because the hostility shown by them toward the Orléans line, and to her particularly by Marie Thérèse of France.

When tumult followed the publication of the Ordinances in 1830 and erupted in the July revolution in Paris, the Orléans family was at the country estate Neuilly.

When rumors arrived that the royalists were going to arrest Louis-Philippe, he evacuated to Raincy and the children were sent to Villiers-Coterets, but Adélaïde and Maria Amalia remained at Neuilly.

[2] At 6 August 1830, she and her sister-in-law were present at the tribune on the ceremony at the chambers in Paris when Louis Philippe was declared King of the French.

In October 1830, a mob broke into the Palais-Royal, and repeated attempts were made to execute the ministers of the former regime, which was refused by Louis-Philippe.