Elisabeth settled firstly in Zurich and then in Cannes, at the "Villa Rose Alba". In France, she met a handsome young seducer and would-be artist named Marc Favrat. Having fallen in love with the young man, the princess wished to marry him and asked her cousin, Frederick, Prince of Hohenzollern, to bestow a title on him, but Frederick refused. The princess then decided to adopt her lover; which she did three months before her death. She died at her home on 14 November 1956.