Prince of Conti.

From her staff at Versailles, Marie Anne introduced her older half brother, the Dauphin, to his second wife, Émilie de Choin. He married her morganatically after the death of his first wife, the unattractive Dauphine Marie Anne Victoire (1660–1690). One day, coming upon Marie Anne Victoire's sleeping form, Marie Anne commented that she was as ugly asleep as she was awake; whereupon the dauphine awoke and retorted that she did not "have the advantage of being a love child."

In 1710, Marie Anne's mother died in Paris at the Carmelite convent she had entered in 1674 under the name of Sister Louise of Mercy. Marie Anne thus acquired the title duchesse de La Vallière and inherited her mother's substantial fortune which had been accumulated over the pastthirty-six years.

In 1713, the Princess of Conti bought the Hôtel de Lorges on the rue Saint-Augustin[1] in Paris, but did not start living there until 1715, and in 1716, the Château de Choisy. Both properties remained in her possession until her death. In 1718, she was presented by the Crown the Château de Champs-sur-Marne, which she later gave to her first cousin, the duc de La Vallière in order to settle some debts. Years later, it was leased for several years by Louis XV's mistress, Madame de Pompadour.

Marie Anne was renowned for her beauty, even at an older age. She was very close to her father, and got on very well with her older brother, Monseigneur, the Grand Dauphin, whom she often visited at his country estate, the