In October 1669, the duchesse de Longueville celebrated the ‘great solitude’ in which she found herself during a retreat at the château de Trie, north-west of Paris; a respite almost certainly afforded by the privacy of her alcove within the pavillon of her apartment. The alcove, a recess within her chambers, was demarcated by two crimson taffeta curtains and contained a parade bed with a walnut frame, decorated with an aigrette of white feathers. Surrounding the bed and by the fireplace were two armchairs, two stools, a chair with a silk cover and a green and silver brocade chair among other furnishings. A prie-dieu was covered with a striped silk fabric. A daybed, two small pedestal tables and a grey armchair furnished a small cabinet within the alcove, and white and crimson taffeta curtains hung at two windows. In the sanctuary of her apartment, Longueville penned a letter to madame de Sablé sharing her plans to prolong her stay at the château, writing: ‘I am spending several months here, where I am in great solitude’.

Occasional visitors to the duchess's wing of the château that autumn, which included her female companion attendant mademoiselle de Vertus and Noël de La Lane, abbéde Valcroissant, could be greeted in the first room of her apartment, the antechamber – a functional room which was sparsely furnished, but decorated with red and gold tapestries, fashionable ‘citron’-coloured damask curtains and other soft furnishings which were ‘isabelle’ in hue.