This did not place me in a very opulent situation; for with eight or nine hundred livres, which I had the first two years, I had scarcely enough to provide for my primary wants; being obliged to live in their neighborhood, a dear part of the town, in a furnished lodging, and having to pay for another lodging at the extremity of Paris, at the very top of the Rue Saint Jacques, to which, let the weather be as it would, I went almost every evening to supper.

I soon got into the track of my new occupations, and conceived a taste for them.
I attached myself to the study of chemistry, and attended several courses of it with M.de Francueil at M.Rouelle's, and we began to scribble over paper upon that science, of which we scarcely possessed the elements.
In 1717, we went to pass the autumn in Tourraine, at the castle of Chenonceaux, a royal mansion upon the Cher, built by Henry the II, for Diana of Poitiers, of whom the ciphers are still seen, and which is now in the possession of M.Dupin, a farmer general.

We amused ourselves very agreeably in this beautiful place, and lived very well: I became as fat there as a monk.

Music was a favorite relaxation.

I composed several trios full of harmony, and of which I may perhaps speak in my supplement if ever I should write one.