On this day, Louis XV writes to the Duke of Parma from Compiègne:
“My dear grandson, until now our stay here has not brought harm to anyone, but we are far from feeling the heat that you are experiencing at Colorno, and several people have had fires lit. It is true that this country is very damp. You do very well to continue to take a lot of exercise. Your cousin will begin to ride on horseback this week, which gives him much pleasure. He is not much too look at in the face, but I tell myself that it is because he is growing so much. The poor Comtesse de Toulouse is quite ill with a distension of the heart; her grandson is out of the woods with regard to the smallpox. I embrace you very tenderly my dear grandson.”
Commentary:
The château at Compiègne is indeed in one of the wettest parts of France, namely Picardy. Colorno is Ferdinand of Parma’s residence. It is to Parma as Versailles is to Paris.
Pictured: The Reggia di Colorno, the ducal palace about 16km from Parma. Par G. Gabelli — Travail personnel, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15634205
The Comtesse de Toulouse is the widow of Louis XV’s great-uncle, the Comte de Toulouse, who died in 1737. She had earlier been one of his mother’s ladies-in-waiting. She is one of the last survivors of his parents’ generation and something of a mother figure to him.
Pictured: Marie-Victoire de Noailles (1688-1766), Comtesse de Toulouse.
The late Comte de Toulouse was the younger son of Louis XIV and Mme de Montespan. The Comtesse de Toulouse, interestingly, was previously married to Mme de Montespan’s grandson, the Marquis de Gondrin, the eldest son of her legitimate son, the Duc d’Antin. He died young, leaving the future Comtesse de Toulouse with 2 small sons.
The translation from the French is my own.
If you have questions that I have not addressed in the commentary, please ask in the comments.