An Affair to Remember

As the story goes, Mariana Alcoforado (1640–1723), a young Beja nun, fell in love with a French count named Chamilly, who was in the Alentejo fighting the Spaniards. When he went back to France, the nun waited longingly and in vain at the window for him to return. The affair was made public when five passionate love letters to the count, attributed to Mariana, were published in France in 1669 (the popular collection was known as the Portuguese Letters). The scandal brought a measure of lasting international literary fame to this provincial Alentejo town. But it's likely that it was actually another Frenchman who penned the infamous letters after hearing of the love story. Nevertheless, French nobles apparently began using the word portugaise as a synonym for a passionate love letter.