Calonne was the great-granddaughter of
Charles Alexandre de Calonne, who was the finance minister of
Louis XVI. She started losing her ability to see or hear following a bout of
typhoid fever in 1870, and her sense of hearing continued to deteriorate until the end of her life, fixing her forever to a world of silence. The sisters of
Saint-Vincent de Paul who took her into their fold as a boarder provided her with special education for deaf youth, and they began to teach her the mysteries of music. Within her dark and deafened world, poetry and music became the twin sources of her solace. She eventually married an architect, one "Galeron", a member of
l'École des beaux-arts. With him she had four children, two of whom died in infancy. She accompanied Galeron to the courts of
Romania,
Spain, and
Portugal. She was a great friend of
Carmen Sylva (literary pseduonym of Elisabeth of Wied, the first
Queen of Romania), whom she engaged in extensive correspondence. She was also a friend of
Amélie of Orléans and of
Pierre Loti, with whom she sojourned at
Hendaye. After the death of her husband, she retired to
Dangu, a small village in the department of
Eure, where she would live out her remaining years in her holiday home. She died and was buried there in 1936. == Works ==