Blanche-Joséphine Le Bascle d'Argenteuil

Blanche-Joséphine Le Bascle d'Argenteuil (22 April 1787, Paris - 10 September 1851), by her second marriage duchess of Maillé, was a French lady of letters and memoir writer. She has left highly interesting memoirs in which her legitimist convictions are shown not to affect the sharpness of her political analysis.

Although the family came from Touraine, she was born in Paris in her family's Hotel Particulier. The family lived in Switzerland and Germany during the French Revolution. They returned to France during the French Directoire. Blanche-Joséphine Le Bascle d'Argenteuil's second marriage, on 2 January 1811, was to Charles de Maillé de La Tour-Landry (1770–1837), 2nd duke of Maillé; they had two children:

• Jacquelin (1815–1874), 3rd duke of Maillé, who married Jeanne d'Osmond ;
• Armand (1816–1903), who married Jeanne Lebrun de Plaisance.

She served as Dame d'honneur to the Duchess of Berry during the Bourbon Restoration. She didn't like her stay at court because she thought the Duchess' entertainment was to frivolous. To bring together a group for discussions on art and literature she founded together with the Marquis de Crillon, her cousin, the Société du Château. With the accession of Louis Philippe I she fell out of favour at court.

From 1832 until her death, she presided over a Salon, a weekly gathering in her house, for writers, artists and politicians.

• Souvenirs des deux Restaurations. Journal inédit, presented by Xavier de La Fournière, 1984
• Mémoires. 1832-1851, 1989