Walk into the big, low-ceiling kitchen of the Maison St-Gabriel, close your eyes, and you can almost hear the squeals and giggles of the filles du roy (king's daughters) as they learn the niceties of 17th-century home management. The filles du roy were young women without family or money but plenty of spunk who volunteered to cross the Atlantic on leaky wooden boats to become the wives and mothers of New France. At the Maison, they learned from St. Marguerite Bourgeoys and her religious order how to cook and clean, how to pray and read, and how to survive the rigors of colonial life. It can't have been easy -- long hours, hard little beds, and cold stone walls -- but it had its rewards and the prize at the end was a respectable, settled life. St. Marguerite also had some state-of-the-art domestic equipment -- the latest in looms and butter churns, labor-saving spit turners for roasting meat, and an ingenious granite sink with a drainage system that piped water straight out to the garden. This little island of New France is well off the beaten path, deep in the working-class Pointe St-Charles neighborhood. But it's certainly worth the 10-minute taxi ride from Vieux-Montréal.