 In 1653 Madeleine and Georges Scudéry established a new residence in the Marais neighborhood of Paris. It is here that Mademoiselle de Scudéry conducted her famous Saturday salon: the samedis, where a large literary circle assembled to discuss disputed questions, especially those concerning the nature of love. The writings of Montaigne, Pierre Charron, and Marguerite de Navarre were discussed in the debates on the nature of true  friendship.[11]  Prominent participants in the salon included Madame de  Sablé,[12]  Madame de Lafayette, Madame Scarron (the future Madame de  Maintenon),[13]  Valentin Conrart, Paul  Pellisson,[14]  Jean-François  Sarasin,[15]  Gilles Ménage, Jean Chapelain, and Antoine Gombaud, chevalier de  Méré.[16]  Many of Scudéry’s philosophical dialogues reflect Méré’s ideal of honnêteté, the virtue of decency, fairness, and tolerance, especially in the realm of disputed ideas. Salonnières debated the “new philosophy” of Descartes; Scudéry opposed the mechanistic theory of matter in Cartesianism. 