Reign of Louis XV
Madame Sophie and her sister Louise were allowed to return to the court of Versailles in 1750, two years after Victoire. Madame de Pompadour, who witnessed the arrival of Sophie and her younger sister Louise from Fontevrault, described Sophie as "almost as tall as I" and "very attractive if rather plump, with a fine complexion …".
According to Madame Campan's memoirs, while their education had been neglected in the convent, they compensated for this and studied extensively, after their return to court, encouraged by their brother, Louis, with whom they immediately formed a close attachment. The Mesdames learned to write French correctly, while also learning Italian and English. They also learned higher branches of mathematics, turning and dialling, and history.
The King referred to them by nicknames: he called Madame Adélaïde, 'Loque' (Tatters/Rag/Rags/Scraggy); Madame Victoire, 'Coche' (Pig/Piggy/Sow); Madame Louise, 'Chiffe' (Shoddy silk/Rags); and Madame Sophie, 'Graille' (Grub/Scrap/Carrion crow).
Madame Sophie never married, but became a member of the collective group of unmarried princesses known as Mesdames. Charles Philippe d'Albert, 4th Duke of Luynes noted that Sophie and her siblings would assist their mother Marie Leszczyńska on various charitable activities she initiated outside Versailles such as giving money and clothes to the poor on various parishes. Being described as of a shy and reserved nature, she did not attract much attention. She did not exercise any influence at the court, but let herself be directed by her older sister Madame Adélaïde, following her in her antipathy against her father's mistresses, Madame de Pompadour and then Madame du Barry. Madame Sophie enjoyed the Château de Bellevue in Meudon and the Château de Louvois in Marne.
In 1761, when her sister, Victoire, in the company of Adélaïde, visited the waters in Lorraine for medical purposes, Sophie and Louise visited Paris for the first time.
Madame Campan, who was employed as her reader in 1768, described her thusly:
"Madame Sophie was remarkably ugly; never did I behold a person with so unprepossessing an appearance; she walked with the greatest rapidity; and, in order to recognise the people who placed themselves along her path without looking at them, she acquired the habit of leering on one side, like a hare. This Princess was so exceedingly diffident that a person might be with her daily for years together without hearing her utter a single word. It was asserted, however, that she displayed talent, and even amiability, in the society of some favourite ladies. She taught herself a great deal, but she studied alone; the presence of a reader would have disconcerted her very much. There were, however, occasions on which the Princess, generally so intractable, became all at once affable and condescending, and manifested the most communicative good-nature; this would happen during a storm; so great was her alarm on such an occasion that she then approached the most humble, and would ask them a thousand obliging questions; a flash of lightning made her squeeze their hands; a peal of thunder would drive her to embrace them, but with the return of the calm, the Princess resumed her stiffness, her reserve, and her repellent air, and passed all by without taking the slightest notice of any one, until a fresh storm restored to her at once her dread and her affability."
And the life of the sisters in the last years of the reign of their father was described as follows:
"Louis XV. saw very little of his family. He came every morning by a private staircase into the apartment of Madame Adélaïde. He often brought and drank their coffee that he had made himself. Madame Adélaïde pulled a bell which apprised Madame Victoire of the King’s visit; Madame Victoire, on rising to go to her sister’s apartment, rang for Madame Sophie, who in her turn rang for Madame Louise. The apartments of Mesdames were of very large dimensions. Madame Louise occupied the farthest room. 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. Every evening, at six, Mesdames interrupted my reading to them to accompany the princes to Louis XV.; this visit was called the King’s 'debotter',—[Debotter, meaning the time of unbooting.]—and was marked by a kind of etiquette. Mesdames put on an enormous hoop, which set out a petticoat ornamented with gold or embroidery; they fastened a long train round their waists, and concealed the undress of the rest of their clothing by a long cloak of black taffety which enveloped them up to the chin. The chevaliers d’honneur, the ladies in waiting, the pages, the equerries, and the ushers bearing large flambeaux, accompanied them to the King. In a moment the whole palace, generally so still, was in motion; the King kissed each Princess on the forehead, and the visit was so short that the reading which it interrupted was frequently resumed at the end of a quarter of an hour; Mesdames returned to their apartments, and untied the strings of their petticoats and trains; they resumed their tapestry, and I my book."
In 1770, the fourteen-year-old Marie Antoinette became Dauphine by marriage to the nephew of Madame Sophie and her sisters, the Dauphin, the future Louis XVI. Because of the close relationship between the Dauphin and his aunts, Marie Antoinette also initially came close to the Mesdames her first years in France as the senior royal women at court. The Mesdames use to alternate with the Countess of Provence in accompanying Marie Antoinette on official assignments. The close relationship between Marie Antoinette and Mesdames was, however, discontinued in 1772, after the attempt to entice Marie Antoinette to humiliate Madame du Barry was thwarted, a plan which had been led by Madame Adélaïde with support of Madame Victoire and Madame Sophie.
