[3][4] She was introduced to the French imperial court by the Austrian ambassador, Richard von Metternich, and appointed as lady-in-waiting to the empress, Eugénie de Montijo, the wife of Napoleon III.

[5] Pourtalès' salon was regarded as one of the most famed during the Second French Empire, when she was one of the leading figures in Parisian high society and imperial court life.

[19] At their château, they hosted Franz Liszt, Napoléon III, Empress Eugénie, the Princes of Belgium and Russia, Ludwig I of Bavaria, the Grand Duke of Baden and the Princess Metternich.

[1] Her husband inherited the Pourtalès mansion, a hôtel particulier (essentially a grand townhouse) on Rue Tronchet in the 8th arrondissement of Paris that was built for his father between 1838 and 1839 by Félix Duban.

[22] Edmée's daughter, Melanie Hoyos, also married a member of the Bismarck family, Count Gottfried von Bismarck-Schönhausen, and their descendants include Stephanie zu Guttenberg.