Madame du Deffand

Madame du Deffand was born at the Château de Chamrond,[2] in Ligny-en-Brionnais, a village near Charolles (département of Saône-et-Loire) of a noble family.

At twenty-one years of age and without consulting her, her parents married her to her kinsman, Jean Baptiste de la Lande, marquis du Deffand.

Madame du Deffand is said by Horace Walpole (in a letter to Thomas Gray) to have been for a short time the mistress of the regent, the duke of Orléans.

She appeared in her earlier days to be incapable of any strong attachment, but her intelligence, her cynicism, and her esprit made her the centre of attraction of a brilliant circle.

She spent much time at Sceaux, at the court of the duchesse du Maine, where she contracted a close friendship with the president, Hénault.

In Paris she attended the Club de l'Entresol[citation needed] and was the rival of Mme Geoffrin, but the members of her salon were drawn from aristocratic society more than from literary circles.

This lady's wit made some of the guests, including D'Alembert, prefer her society to that of Madame du Deffand, and Mademoiselle de Lespinasse received visitors for an hour before her patron appeared.

Of her innumerable witty sayings the best known is her remark on the cardinal de Polignac's account of St Denis's miraculous walk of two miles with his head in his hands--Il n'y a que le premier pas qui coûte (The distance doesn't matter; it is only the first step that is the most difficult.).