[3] The site the nuns selected was on the east bank of a section of the Loing Canal, which flows through the town.

[4] The building was designed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart in the neoclassical style, built in brick with a cement render finish and was completed in 1669.

[5] The design involved a near-symmetrical main frontage of 13 bays facing onto what is now Rue de Docteur Chopy.

[7] The building was appropriately divided up, so that medical services, teaching and residential care could all be provided for people arriving there.

The town council, which had previously been based at a house on Quai Victor Hugo,[a] then relocated into the building.