It is clear that no straight-forward conclusions about formal school attendance can be drawn from evidence about literacy. Patterns of literacy and patterns of schooling during the early modern period are connected, but are by no means identical, as is suggested by certain anomalies uncovered by research. We do know that some regions—for example, in the diocese of Reims—that the local patterns of school attendance recorded in Church reports does correspond fairly closely with the distribution of literacy. But other regional studies suggest that the match between school facilities and literacy rates is far from perfect. In southeastern France, for example, there was a dense network of schools, but literacy as indicated by the ability to sign remained low. Conversely, in the mountainous areas of the Alps and the Pyrenees there were few schools, but by the end of the eighteenth century men, at least, had nearly all learned to write.

— Schooling in Western Europe by Mary Jo Maynes (Page 18)