Rather, she was, in June 1738, sent to live at the Abbey of Fontevraud with her younger sisters, because the cost of raising them in Versailles with all the status they were entitled to was deemed too expensive by Cardinal Fleury, Louis XV's chief minister.

According to Madame Campan, the Mesdames had rather a traumatic upbringing at Fontrevraud and were not given much education: "Cardinal Fleury, who in truth had the merit of re-establishing the finances, carried this system of economy so far as to obtain from the King the suppression of the household of the four younger princesses.

Saint Cyr would have been more suitable for the reception of the King’s daughters; but probably the Cardinal shared some of those prejudices which will always attach to even the most useful institutions, and which, since the death of Louis XIV, had been raised against the noble establishment of Madame de Maintenon.

Madame Victoire attributed certain paroxysms of terror, which she was never able to conquer, to the violent alarms she experienced at the Abbey of Fontevrault, whenever she was sent, by way of penance, to pray alone in the vault where the sisters were interred.

"[2] Victoire made a success at court and her father with her lively self-assurance and charm; she was also regarded to be a beauty and was described, "Madame Victoire was handsome and very graceful; her address, mien, and smile were in perfect accordance with the goodness of her heart",[2] and "her beautiful, tender, soft brown eyes, fresh complexion [...] and a bright smile gave the impression of happiness and health, which, together with her desire to please, radiated from her whole personality".

This latter lady was deformed and very short; the poor Princess used to run with all her might to join the daily meeting, but, having a number of rooms to cross, she frequently in spite of her haste, had only just time to embrace her father before he set out for the chase.

Despite the fact the sisters had never had smallpox, and the male members of the royal family, as well as the dauphine, were kept away because of the high risk of catching the illness, the Mesdames were allowed to attend to him until his death, being female and therefore of no political importance because of the Salic law.

The sisters were in fact infected by their father and fell ill with smallpox (from which they recovered), and were kept in quarantine on a little house near the Château de Choisy, to which the court evacuated after the death of the King until recovery.

[11] Their nephew the King allowed them to keep their apartments in the Palace of Versailles, and they kept attending court at special occasions - such as for example at the visit of Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor.

[12] However, they distanced themselves from court and often preferred to reside in their own Château de Bellevue in Meudon; they also travelled annually to Vichy, always with a retinue of at least three hundred people, and made the waters there fashionable.

[13] The Mesdames continued to be the confidants of Louis XVI, and they also maintained a good relationship with their niece, Princess Élisabeth of France, and often visited her in her retreat at the Domain of Montreuil.

[13] The Austrian Ambassador Florimond Claude, Comte de Mercy-Argenteau reported that their salon was a centre of intrigues against Marie Antoinette, where the Mesdames tolerated poems satirizing the queen.

Revolutionary laws against the Catholic Church caused them to apply for passports from their nephew, the King, to travel on pilgrimage to the Basilica of Saint Peter in Rome.

The Chronique de Paris wrote: "Two Princesses, sedentary by condition, age, and taste, are suddenly possessed by a mania for travelling and running about the world.

Already the Grand Master of Malta has caused Madame Adélaïde to be informed that he will give her his heart and hand as soon as she has quitted France, and that she may count upon the assistance of three galleys and forty-eight cavaliers, young and old.

"[15] Their trip was affected by some bad publicity; they were temporarily stopped by a riot against their departure in Moret, and on 21 February, they were detained for several days at a tavern in Arnay-le-Duc, where the municipality wished to confirm their permission to leave from the National Assembly before allowing them to continue.

Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau convinced the National Assembly that "The welfare of the people cannot depend on the journey the Ladies undertake to Rome; while they are promenading near the places where the Capitol once stood, nothing prevents the edifice of our liberty from rising to its utmost height.

[...] Europe will doubtless be much astonished when it learns that the National Assembly of France spent four entire hours in deliberating on the departure of two ladies who would rather hear Mass in Rome - than in Paris.

They were met by a royal guard of escort and by the chief palace officials of King Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia, who installed them in the Château de Chambéry.

[16] In the Friday receptions of Cardinal de Bernis, Cornelia Knight described them: "Madame Adélaïde still retained traces of that beauty which had distinguished her in her youth, and there was great vivacity in her manner, and in the expression of her countenance.

[14] Upon the invasion of Italy by Revolutionary France in 1796, Adélaïde and Victoire left Rome for Naples, where Marie Antoinette's sister, Maria Carolina, was queen, and settled at the Neapolitan royal court in the Palace of Caserta.

Queen Maria Carolina found their presence in Naples difficult: "I have the awful torment of harbouring the two old Princesses of France with eighty persons in their retinue and every conceivable impertinence...