La Lorette

The lorette is one of the most mythologized of French 19th century prostitutes. These women, though higher in rank than filles publiques, were considered "aspiring courtesans." Working outside of maisons de tolérance, or authorized and "tolerated" brothels, lorettes were considered insoumises (undocumented or unregulated) and therefore subject, when arrested, to the government’s harsh prostitution laws. Inhabiting the neighborhood around the Notre-Dame-de-Lorette Cathedral on the right bank, they. along with many other women, were rounded up and taken to jail simply for being out too late.

The main differences between the lorette and other types of French prostitutes stem from their relationships to men. For example, the grisette is the companion of a young, male college student. She is one part caretaker--doing his laundry and cooking--and one part lover. The lorette, however, is frequently depicted as having older bourgeois souteneurs or “caretakers.” This relationship is much closer to what we think of when we think of a socially ambitious "kept woman" today.

This is how Alexandre Dumas described the lorette in his 1844 chapter "Filles, lorettes, courtesanes" (image above): 

"This breed belonged entirely to the feminine sex: it was made up of charming little beings, tidy, elegant, flirtatious, whom one could not classify according to any known type: she was neither [...] a street walker, nor a grisette, nor a courtesan./ She wasn't the bourgeois type./ And she certainly wasn't the honnest/decent woman type."