Yes, Madame drank. That, we do know for sure.

This might have had an happy consequence... Or was it Provence's intelligence ? Monsieur and Madame also escaped from Paris, that night Louis and his family ran away from the Tuileries. But Provence and his wife used separate coaches. With these speedy diligences, they got safely to Brussels...

Yes they envisaged better their escape… Provence even took horsemanship lessons!

Well I suppose that there is no reason why they SHOULD have been in love - after all they had never met before their wedding, neither was physically attractive or a particularly charming personality and PRovence was impotent . If you add lesbianism to Maria Josepha's list of traits then there's a fair chance that neither of them relished the match. That said, i suppose they got used to each other after a few years

I amnot so sure about that ! Historian say she may be a lesbian... and Provence may be gay... So what ? So many people were bisexual in the aristocracy...

i dont think that provence was gay ... didnt he hook up with that one woman for a while ... Comptesse de Balbi or something? Either was i see no reason why Provence would be at all attracted to his wife. Sallow, ugly, hefty , alcoholic, dirty and an intriguer arent such attrarive features .

Yes, Madame de Balbi was Provence's official "mistress" before the revolution. Madame du Cayla was afterwards. His problems were more an issue of health rather than lack of attraction for ladies.

Was Madame really as bad as people make her out to be? Sallow? Well, lots of people are that. Small? In that time lots of people were that too. I did hear that yes, she had poor hygiene but she could have addressed that. Are there any pics of her?

Didn't Marie Antoinette try to help her out in this respect? This notion popped into my head and I have no idea where it came from. Perhaps I read it somewhere; perhaps I have a better imagination than I thought!

Agree..

I feel kind of sorry for the two Savoyard princesses; besides being married to men they had very little affection for, they weren't very popular at Versailles either. But then again, it's hard to feel sorry for someone who doesn't see the need to keep up their personal hygiene... ah well, hygenic standards back then were very different from those today! Marie Josephine and Marie Therese probably weren't the grossest ones at Versilles!