©Office de Tourisme de Bourail
©Office de Tourisme de Bourail
Built by the prison administration, the Louise Michel school once housed the Bourail women's convent, where French female prisoners were deported at the end of the 19th century.
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Between 1870 and 1887, over 500 women were sent to New Caledonia from French prisons, with the aim of "providing" wives for men who had obtained land concessions after serving their sentences in the bagne. The women's penitentiary at Bourail, also known as "le couvent" because it was run by the sisters of Saint-Joseph-de-Cluny, provided accommodation for many of them. Concessionaires could go to the convent and ask to meet these women, then choose one to marry. The women's convent was built...
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- The current Louise Michel school, which once housed the Bourail women's convent, is located on the heights of the village of Bourail, close to the gendarmerie and dispensary.
