The Queen and her children lived chiefly at the hôtel St. Paul, going backwards and forwards between it and the Palais, spending two or three weeks at one and then at the other, making excursions and visits to other of the royal castles in the neighbourhood. The plague, or, as they called it, “the mortality,” was still a good deal about, and there are notices of men sent to find out if it was safe to go to different places, as for instance, Jehan Charron was sent by the Queen to Crécy with letters to the _receveur_ to ask if “the mortality” was there, and another man on another occasion to ride all night somewhere to make the same inquiry; and as Isabeau again sent two or three times in April to different places it must have still been going on. She also went to St. Ouen and borrowed a litter from the Abbot of Coulons.[195] On May 31st she seems to have returned from some excursion, for she dined and supped at the hôtel Barbette and went to St. Paul to sleep. Isabeau and Louis, with their suites, would often go out to dine and sup at one of these châteaux, especially as the days grew long and the weather hot. Baignolet, or Bagnolet, near Romainville, with its wood of elms and other trees, was another of the Queen’s country-places where they sometimes went, returning to Paris at night. But the distress, confusion, and poverty in the kingdom were increasing rapidly, and the people murmured as the sounds of music and merriment were heard from the windows of the hôtel Barbette or the cavalcades of Louis and Isabeau, with their splendid dresses, trappings, and horses swept through the streets or passed out of the gates of Paris.
They were both very fond of horses and rode well, and wherever she was Isabeau had numbers of pet animals. Plenty of dogs, both large and small, monkeys which played about in her rooms, an enormous aviary of all sorts of birds, French and foreign, which sang and chattered all about her palaces, for there were parrots amongst them as well as doves and little birds. When she moved she took them with her, and was always buying more or having them given to her.[196]
All her children were with her at this time except the Queen of England, who was expected before long, and the little nun at Poissy--that is to say, her two boys, her second daughter, Jeanne, Duchesse de Bretagne, who still lived with her, and the little Michelle and Catherine. There is an account of the offerings made by the Queen and the four elder children at Circumcision, Epiphany, Candlemas, Easter, and all the great festivals. The children all gave the same.