The Salons

For over a hundred years the arts and culture in France were controlled by aristocratic women and intellectual life was dominated by the salons.  That is a tribute to women’s intellect, for it was always the rival of the men’s.  Initially the leading salon of the era was the Marquise de Rambouillet’s, from 1620 till 1645, but it became pretentious, as they all do eventually, even Ninon’s. Molière satirized the salons in Les Précieuses ridicules (1659).

Molière