Notably missing from the 1719 floor plans of the château Saint-Louis is any sort of running water or lavatory system. Privies have been excavated on the site, and fragments of chamber pots have also been found by archaeologists. By 1724, both wings of the structure connected to lieues [lieux], a period term that translates literally to "place" but derived from lieu d'aisance, meaning "place of ease." Basically, a latrine. The 1724 floor plan appears to indicate that these lieues could accommodate up to three people at any given time. Privacy was not what it is today, and even the governor and his family lived surrounded by others. In the seventeenth century, Louis XIV had developed an etiquette and protocol so rigid that even the royal family was not spared constant intrusions of personal space. Aristocratic households emulated this element of court culture, even as far away as Québec.
For the governor and his family, eight faïence (tin-glazed earthenware, sometimes referred to as Delftware in English sources) chamber pots could be used within the comfort and semi-privacy of the château's bedchambers. These were inventoried in 1726 and found in a room adjoining the garde-meuble (a storage or lumber room) along with other earthenware vessels and porcelain, glassware, tools, and spices. It seems likely that by the time that the inventory was taken in 1726, a year after Philippe's death, many of the furnishings were collectively stored in various rooms and not where they had been used during his lifetime.
By the 1750s, at least one of the château's cabinets had been transformed into a cabinet de toilette according to Pierre de Rigaud. Outfitted with a crimson damask wall covering bordered with gilt brackets and decorative overdoors, the space must have been a far cry from the lieues that presumably existed for use by the servants and soldiers billeted at the château. Pierre de Rigaud included an account of this room's furnishings when seeking restitution from Great Britain in 1771.
By the 1750s, at least one of the château's cabinets had been transformed into a cabinet de toilette according to Pierre de Rigaud. Outfitted with a crimson damask wall covering bordered with gilt brackets and decorative overdoors, the space must have been a far cry from the lieues that presumably existed for use by the servants and soldiers billeted at the château. Pierre de Rigaud included an account of this room's furnishings when seeking restitution from Great Britain in 1771.