Hopital la Salpatriere

This wasnt the most visually exciting stop of our trip, but for me it was special. I have family history here... going back more than 350 years. The story behind it is a bit of a read, but here it is if it interests you:

The filles du roi, or King's Daughters, were some 770 women who arrived in the colony of New France (Canada) between 1663 and 1673, under the financial sponsorship of King Louis XIV of France. Most were single French women and many were orphans. Their transportation to Canada and settlement in the colony were paid for by the King. Some were given a royal gift of a dowry of 50 livres for their marriage to one of the many unmarried male colonists in Canada. The filles du roi were part of King Louis XIV's program to promote the settlement of his colony in Canada.

My ancestor is Anne Pineau. She was one of the filles du roi, or King's Daughters. She married Gilles Gotreau {or} Gaudreau in 1671 and had 6 children. (spelling depends which source you look at... our last name seems to have changed spelling a few times over the years)

This place I visited today is where she was from before being chosen to be a filles du roi. Two hundred and forty of the 770 women came from the Salpatriere. I have come across a couple versions of the story... Im not certain which is accurate. Here are both:

V1. The Salpatriere was an orphanage before it was a hospital.

V2. The Salpatriere was a prison for prostitutes and the mentally disabled, criminally insane and housed the poor.

Let's pretend the first story is the true one because it sounds nicer, ok? Ok!

And as an added bonus, if you look at the sign above the map in photo 1, the courtyard there is named after St. Claire! What a lovely name, don't you think?

As another extra tidbit of information, Anne belonged to the St Eustache Parish... which if you look back to posts from 2 days ago- we were there!

And yet another interesting fact - Princess Diana was taken to this hospital after her tragic cat accident. So she actually died here as opposed to the tunnel.Read more