In the obituary published by Journal des débats In October 1867, Guizot wrote of Achille de Daunant that ’he has been, for more than sixty years, one of my dearest, most intimate and most loyal friends«. This triple qualification, rarely used by Guizot, explains why he included this note in his Biographical and literary mixtures, published the following year. Daunant is, along with Barante, the only friend of Guizot to appear on the list. This relationship goes back even further than the two men themselves, since the Daunant and Guizot families, Protestant and of old Nîmes stock, were related even before they were born. Achille was born on 1^er Daunant was born on 1 January 1786, the eldest of four children whose father was mayor of Nîmes under the Empire, and thus obtained a title of baron which was passed on to his son. It was in 1806 that Guizot really got to know him, sharing with him law studies that Daunant pursued to completion, paving the way for a career as a magistrate spent entirely at the Nîmes Court of Appeal, where he was successively auditor, then councillor in 1818 and First President in 1833. This youthful friendship was strengthened by political ties. A liberal deputy for the Gard from 1827 to 1837, under the July monarchy he became a member of the conservative party, of which Guizot was one of the leaders, and his friend helped him to become a member of the Chamber of Peers.. He was also the head of the political and Protestant network in the Gard region that Guizot carefully nurtured. The revolution of 1848 also led to his definitive withdrawal from politics, including his resignation as First President. During these years,« wrote Guizot, »the foundation of liberty within order, respect for all the personal rights of men at the same time as for all the legal powers, such was the dominant thought of M. de Daunant, the constant rule of his conduct«. Misfortune had also brought them together, since Daunant lost »an excellent son, already a magistrate, and his dearest hope", Henri, who died at 28 years old and whose schooling Guizot had taken care of in Paris, then, in 1851 Rose Gardiès, his wife since 1813, and saw his two younger sisters Rosalie and Laure de Gasparin die before him. Along with his daughters Pauline de Castelnau and Julie Colomb, Daunant was one of the guests at Val-Richer, where family ties were nurtured, and it was in his home that Guizot naturally stayed when his son Guillaume married in Nîmes in 1860: «Your brother is a true brother to me», he wrote at the time. Guizot to Laure de Daunant-Gasparin, author in 1855 of an essay on Saint-Simon and his times, Daunant was an active member of the Académie du Gard, of which Guizot had been a member since 1807, and became honorary president in 1859. He led the life of a wealthy, influential and even, it seems, popular pensioner, because, as Guizot wrote, he was a «friend of the poor, patron of the weak» and generous towards the Reformed Church and charitable institutions. Guizot had immense confidence in his sound judgement and total probity. Baron Achille de Daunant thus died in the respect of all on 21 September 1867. Of the abundant correspondence between Daunant and Guizot, in which political issues, Protestant affairs and family news are intertwined, only snippets have survived to the present day. A letter from Guizot dated 2 May 1860 reads: «My long life has taught me that, of all the satisfactions of this world, none are worth those of a true friendship. You have given me those to the full. I do not thank you for it, but I still enjoy it and I will enjoy it as long as God leaves us together here on earth.»

To this exceptional friendship must be added, to a slightly lesser degree, that which Guizot felt for Achille's younger brother, Paradès de Daunant, whom he made in 1841 a «very good and very big prefect» of the Loire. Paradès, who was born in 1797 and died the same year as Guizot, had had three daughters by his wife Isaure Delpuech, Pauline, whom Guizot loved particularly, Henriette, the latter a close friend of Henriette Guizot who died in 1849, and Marie, who died of illness in 1858, as well as a sickly son, Auguste, whom Guizot found distressing and whom he sometimes received in Paris until his early death in 1863. «I really like and esteem Paradès (...) always so kind and so frank», Guizot wrote to his sister Laure.