The ludic literary hospitality of Claude Catherine de Clermont, duchesse de Retz, was enjoyed by Marguerite de Valois, high-ranking court women, and many leading poets, several of whom were well known to Antoinette de Loynes and Madeleine de l’Aubespine. A member of the noblesse d’épée, Retz was the daughter-in-law of Marie de Pierrevive and cousin of Jean de Vivonne, father of the marquise de Rambouillet. Tributes to Retz by Marie de Romieu and Pasquier’s remembrances of entertainment in her home, as well as traces of her circle’s activities in a manuscript album, reveal fascinating elements of this group, whose style of sociability resonates with that popular in Lyon and Poitiers and illustrates Huizinga’s and Fink’s notions of idyllic play worlds.