A day in the life: Duchesse de Choiseul

"The Duchess has only two hours' time to herself, and these two hours are devoted to her toilet and her letters; the calculation is a simple one,- she gets up at eleven; breakfasts at noon, and this is followed by conversation, which lasts three or four hours; dinner comes at six, after which there is play and the reading of the memoirs of Mme. de Maintenon...the company remains together until two o'clock in the morning."

Taine, Hippolyte A. The Ancient Regime: The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 1. Gloucester, Massachusetts: Echo Library, 2006.