frlit1-5, Exercise 1: The salons

Model answer:

The salons were regular dinners and receptions in Paris, run by hostesses such as Madame Geoffrin and Julie de Lespinasse, where writers, scientists, artists and aristocrats met. They gave thinkers an audience, protection and a place to test their ideas. Women were central because they were excluded from the universities and the academies, so the salons were one of the few places where they could shape intellectual life.

Check the names against a reference work.