Eugènie Guillou, ancienne religieuse, prostituée

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Eugènie Guillou is born on the 14th of September 1861 in Paris in what seems to be a rich family. After the ruin of the family, she joined the Convent of the Sister of Zion in 1880. Becoming Sister Marie Zelaïde, she stayed 12 years at the convent. Between 1882 and 1885, then between 1885 and 1890, she lived in Romania, in the community of Jassy. For unknown reasons, her vows were refused in 1882.

Little is known about her between 1894 and 1900. She may have lived as a teacher or a servant, as she briefly appeared working as a one for a procurer.

She was sent to jail between 1902 and 1903 because her work of “femme galante”. As it was common, she used classified ad in newspapers to get clients. She describes herself as an adept of whips. She also disguised herself, as a nun for example, and screenwrote her encounters.

Becoming a procuress, she opened different brothels.

Nothing is known about her after 1913.

Caroline Rémy, portrait by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

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Caroline Rémy de Guebhard (April 27, 1855, Paris — April 24, 1929, was a French socialist, journalist, and feminist best known under the pen name Séverine.

Around 1880 Caroline Rémy became involved with Jules Vallès’ socialist publication, Cri du Peuple. Vallès eventually gave her control over the newspaper due to his poor health. A growing militant in her views, she became friends with fellow journalist and feminist, Marguerite Durand but following a confrontation with the Marxist Jules Guesde she left the newspaper in 1888. She continued writing for other papers in which she promoted women’s emancipation and denounced social injustices of all kinds including the Dreyfus Affair. In 1897, she began writing for Durand’s feminist daily newspaper La Fronde.

A staunch leftist, Rémy backed some of the anarchist causes including the defense of Germaine Berton and participated in the 1927 efforts to save Sacco and Vanzetti. She supported the Russian Revolution of 1917 and in 1921 she joined the French Communist Party; however, only a few years later, she quit the party in order to maintain her membership in the Ligue des droits de l’homme.

Louise Boursier

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Louise Bourgeois or Louise Boursier or Louise Bourgeois or Louyse Bourgeous (1563–1636) was a French midwife called The Scholar. She was midwife to the French royal family of King Henry IV of France and his wife Marie de Médicis, and helped raise the art from folklore to science through her prodigious writings and her methods which were based on common sense.

Madame de Staël en Corinne (1807), Firmin Massot, huile sur bois, 61 x 52 cm - Collection du château de Coppet (Suisse) -

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Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein; 22 April 1766 – 14 July 1817), commonly known as Madame de Staël, was a French woman of letters of Swiss origin whose lifetime overlapped with the events of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era of which she was a principal opponent. Celebrated for her conversational eloquence, she participated actively in the political and intellectual life of her times. Her works, both critical and fictional, made their mark on the history of European Romanticism.

Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet (anonymous, 17th century)

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Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet (1588 – 2 December 1665), known as Madame de Rambouillet, was a society hostess and a major figure in the literary history of 17th-century France.

Marguerite Bourgeoys par Pierre le Ber

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Marguerite Bourgeoys, C.N.D., was the French foundress of the Congregation of Notre Dame of Montreal in the colony of New France, now part of Canada. She lived in Fort Ville-Marie (now Montreal) as of 1653, educating young girls, the poor, and natives until her death at the turn of the 18th century. She is also significant for developing one of the first uncloistered religious communities in the Catholic Church. She has been declared asaint by the Catholic Church.

hominisaevum:

Jean Nicot  (1530— 1600/1604)
French diplomat and scholar who introduced tobacco to the French court in the 16th century, which gave rise to the culture of snuffing and to the plant’s eventual dissemination and popularization throughout Europe.

At first, the plant was called Nicotina. But nicotine later came to refer specifically to the particular chemical in the plant.

A portrait of André Le Nôtre by Carlo Maratta.

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André Le Nôtre (12 March 1613 – 15 September 1700, occasionally rendered as André Le Nostre) was a French landscape architect and the principal gardener of King Louis XIV of France. Most notably, he was responsible for the design and construction of the park of the Palace of Versailles, and his work represents the height of the French formal garden style, or jardin à la française.

Prior to working on Versailles, Le Nôtre collaborated with Louis Le Vau and Charles Le Brun on the park at Vaux-le-Vicomte. His other works include the design of gardens and parks at Chantilly, Fontainebleau, Saint-Cloud, and Saint-Germain. His contribution to planning was also significant: at theTuileries he extended the westward vista, which later became the avenue of the Champs-Élysées and comprise the Axe historique.

François de Beaumont, baron des Adrets

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François de Beaumont, baron des Adrets (c. 1512/1513-1587) was a Huguenot leader, notorious for his cruelty; he died a Catholic.

He was born in 1512 or 1513 at the château of La Frette (Isère). During the reign of Henry II of France he served with distinction in the royal army and became colonel of the legions of Dauphiné, Provence and Languedoc. In 1562, however, he joined the Huguenots, not from religious conviction but probably from motives of ambition and personal dislike of the house of Guise.

His campaign against the Catholics in 1562 was eminently successful. In June of that year Des Adrets was master of the greater part of Dauphiné. But his brilliant military qualities were marred by his revolting atrocities. The reprisals he exacted from the Catholics after their massacres of the Huguenots atOrange have left a dark stain upon his name. The garrisons that resisted him were butchered with every circumstance of brutality, and at Montbrison, inForez, he forced eighteen prisoners to precipitate themselves from the top of the keep. Having alienated the affections of the Huguenots by his pride and violence, he entered into communication with the Catholics, and declared himself openly in favor of conciliation.

On 10 January 1563 he was arrested on suspicion by some Huguenot officers and confined in the citadel of Nîmes. He was liberated at the edict of Amboise in the following March, and, distrusted alike by Huguenots and Catholics, retired to the château of La Frette. In 1585,in league with the Englishman Richard Topcliffe,he attacked and ransacked he Abbey of Our Lady of Aiguebelle,Provence, and attempted to destroy it. Unable to do so, he buried all entrances to the Abbey beneath tons of earth and rubble. He died a Catholic at La Frette, on 2 February 1587.

Jeune femme Makouavi ; Enfant M’Nyamouézi ; Le jeune Mou’Ïao Henri Gustave / A. Bayot lith. d’après épreuves daguerriennes. - Paris : A. Bertrand, [1856-1857]. - 3 est. (ill. de livre) : lithogr., en noir ; 24 x 37 cm (im.), 33 x 52,5 cm (f.).
Dans : “Documents sur l’histoire, la géographie et le commerce de l’Afrique orientale” / recueillis et rédigés par M. Guillain, vol. 4, atlas, pl. 35

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