Adèle Paulina Mekarska was born on 9 November 1839, in Clermont-Ferrand. Her father, Count Jean Nepomucène Mekarski, was a Polish officer who had gone into exile after the unsuccessful Polish uprising of 1830; he was a relative of the last Polish king, Stanislas II. Her mother was an aristocrat, Jeanne-Blanche Cornelly de la Perrière. Adèle's parents were enlightened liberals who apparently became adherents of the utopian socialism of Henri de Saint-Simon. Adèle was well-educated, mostly by private tutors. She had two younger brothers, Louis and Jules; both participated in the Polish uprising of 1863 and in the Paris Commune.