Blanche-Joséphine Le Bascle d'Argenteuil
Blanche-Joséphine Le Bascle d'Argenteuil (1787–1851) was a French writer and the Duchess of Maillé by her second marriage. She is known for memoirs that show her strong political views without dulling her sharp analysis.
She was born in Tours and grew up in Paris, living at a grand townhouse on rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. Her parents were Lt-Gen. Jean-Louis-Marie Le Bascle, Marquis d'Argenteuil, and Catherine Barjot de Roncé. During the French Revolution her family lived in Switzerland and Germany. They returned to France in 1797, helped by her uncle Charles Joseph Fortuné, Marquis d’Herbouville, who later raised her and settled her in Paris in 1809. He was a government official under Napoleon.
Blanche-Joséphine served as a lady-in-waiting to the Duchess of Berry during the Bourbon Restoration. She did not enjoy court life, finding the entertainments frivolous. To bring together friends for discussion of art and literature, she and her cousin, the Marquis de Crillon, founded the Société du Château.
After Louis-Philippe I came to the throne in 1830, she fell out of favor at court. From 1832 until her death, she ran a weekly salon at her Paris home near Saint-Germain-des-Prés, on rue de Lille, where writers, artists and politicians gathered.
She wrote two memoirs. Souvenirs des Deux Restaurations (written 1814–1830) and Mémoires (1832–1851), which recount life in Paris from the Restoration up to Louis-Napoleon’s rise and include appearances by Balzac and Lamartine.
On 2 January 1811 she married Charles de Maillé de La Tour-Landry, the 2nd Duke of Maillé (1770–1837). He was eighteen years older and a widower since 1809. They lived at the Château de Lormois and had two children, including a son named Jacquelin. The Duke died on 5 January 1837.
Blanche-Joséphine died accidentally on 10 September 1851 at the Rochefoucauld family’s Château de la Roche Courbon.
Her family line continued through her son Jacquelin to Renée de Maillé de La Tour-Landry (1851–1933), who married General Jacques de Ganay, linking her to the Ganay and Pourtalès families, notable bankers and art collectors.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 20:23 (CET).