What exactly is the difference between absolute monarchy and feudalism?

[Murk]

Prior to the French Revolution, France had an absolute monarch. And yet, the country still had feudal lords with their old privileges more or less intact.


So what I'm not getting is, what's the difference here?

What made this form of absolute monarchy different from feudalism?

I suppose what I'm asking is... How did the role of the feudal lord change under an absolute monarchy?

Or is the distinction arbitrary?

The distinction you are looking for is who has to say please.
In true pure feudalism, the monarch goes to his feudal lords and say "Please let me be king," and then the feudal lords say "Yeah OK" or they say "Lol no" and kill the king.
In the absolute monarchy you think of, the feudal lords go to the king and say "We're not useful anymore, but please let us still be rich and stuff" and then the king says "Yeah alright for old times' sake" or he says "Lol no" and takes away their stuff.

Of course these are two very broad terms, and every historical application of it will be different - they are concepts to describe the situation, not a strict set of guidelines. So the overly simple explanation is that a feudal king was very much dependent on the support of feudal lords, while the absolute monarch could probably survive without them.