Two years after Madame de Pompadour moved into the apartments of the Duke and Duchess of Penthièvre, Louis XV’s daughter Victoire moved into the Countess of Toulouse’ apartment. (The Countess kept a couple of small rooms where she could receive the King).
At the same time, Adelaide, who was now the eldest daughter after the death of Henriette, moved into a grand apartment on the first floor.
The following year Victoire, who was the second eldest of Louis XV’s daughters, had her two younger sisters, Sophie and Louise join her in the ground floor apartment.
Ten years later Madame de Pompadour died. When the widowed dauphine Marie-Josèphe de Saxe also died, Victoire moved into the apartment which had belonged to Madame de Pompadour. The two younger sisters rearranged and expanded their section of the ground floor.
The arrival of Madame du Barry on the scene changed everything. The apartment Adelaide had occupied for 15 years was immediately below the apartment Louis XV had organised for his new mistress on the second floor. He decided to move Adelaide back to the ground floor with her sisters and convert her apartment on the first floor into a series of dining rooms.
More space was given to the sisters by turning part of the gallery (which was below the Hall of Mirrors and separated the Marble Courtyard from the gardens) into an apartment.
As the eldest, Adelaide had her choice so Victoire had to move out of Madame de Pompadour’s former apartment to make way for her.
The arrival of Madame du Barry was the last straw for Louis XV’s youngest daughter Louise. She decided to become a Carmelite nun at Saint Denis.
When Sophie died seven years before the French Revolution, Victoire took over part of her apartment and Marie-Antoinette set up her own “little apartment on the marble courtyard” in the other section overlooking the marble courtyard.
