Maison natale de la marquise de Maintenon

Françoise d'Aubigné was born in 1635 in a dwelling in the former prison of Niort where her indebted father was locked up as a murderer, traitor and counterfeiter. She lived her childhood of poverty with her Protestant aunt of Mursay, close to Niort, where her grandfather lived, squire of the future Henry IV and great poet of the baroque period. After her stay in the West Indies, she is called the "Beautiful Indian". His religious education was entrusted to the Ursulines of Niort, and then to those of Paris. In order to escape the convent, she is married to the "old" poet Paul Scarron, then, at his death, becomes the governess of the "bastards" of Louis XIV. The king offered him the marquisat of Maintenon and married him overnight in 1683. She founded the institution of Saint-Cyr, teaching the poor girls of the nobility.