Descending On France 1780-Chapter 12 - 009 First Arrival in Paris

The journey back to Paris was more peaceful than expected.

The only challenge came from Anning's buttocks: long hours of horseback riding put Anning through a terrible ordeal for his backside.

By the second day, Anning discovered blood when he defecated, clearly the intimate contact with the saddle and the friction had given him hemorrhoids prematurely.

Luckily, the situation wasn't too serious, and it wasn't yet the time to need Mayinglong ointment, so Anning endured it.

To distract himself, Anning began to observe young master Kroetz more carefully.

He soon found the lad's chin suspiciously smooth, combined with his consistent use of clothing to cover his Adam's apple, Anning grew more and more suspicious that Kroetz was actually a woman.

Why would the Duke of Orleans's daughter disguise herself as a man and go to the battlefield?

Puzzled, in his casual chats with others, Anning subtly brought up many questions about women going to war.

The outcome was quite a surprise to him.

He found out that in this timeline's France, due to the influence of Saint Joan, there actually was a tradition of women participating in war.

Moreover, some impoverished nobles, to avoid paying dowries, would send their daughters to military academies, to serve in the military just like men.

In the original timeline, France's poor nobles would send their daughters to monasteries to live a cloistered life devoted to God in order to save on dowries, but in this timeline they would send their daughters to serve the country like Joan, aiming to gain glory and rewards.

However, the Duke of Orleans wasn't an impoverished noble, Anning remembered that in the original timeline, the Duke of Orleans was an enlightened noble, already capitalized and very wealthy.

Clearly, the Duke of Orleans's daughter didn't need to join the military to avoid paying a dowry, the only explanation was that Kroetz—who knows what her real name was—didn't want to get married too soon, so she disguised herself as a man to join the military, trying to earn merits to prove herself.

Regardless, once he arrived in Paris and met the Duke of Orleans, Anning would know if his speculation was correct.

Ten days after leaving the front lines, Anning finally caught sight of the silhouette of Paris City.

Originally, Anning thought that the city of this era would at most be like a larger county town, never did he expect it to already be so grand scale.

Standing on the high ground downstream of the Seine River, overlooking the entire city, he couldn't see the edges of the city at a glance.

Moreover, the whole city had a vast number of buildings, which looked like a big gray expanse.

The slums at the edge of the city, with their chaotic and disorderly low-rise buildings, looked remarkably like the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.

The roads leading into the city were lined with merchant's carts loaded with goods.

Kroetz seemed quite pleased with Anning's astonished look, asking with a slightly smug tone, "First time in Paris?"

Anning nodded: "Yes, the first time."

"Everyone who comes for the first time is shocked; after all, this is France's largest city, with several million people living here."

Anning curled his lip, thinking that's nothing, I've seen megacities with tens of millions of people living together.

But there was no need to quibble with Kroetz over this, so he pretended to be thoroughly impressed and said: "Truly remarkable!"

Kroetz: "You probably can't imagine, once we enter the city, we still have to travel for over an hour to get to my father's estate, the Royal Palace! When we enter the city, don't be scared by the crowd."

Anning: "Okay, I... will try my best."

He didn't have much else to say than "I'll try my best."

He certainly couldn't tell Kroetz: I've been battle-tested on Yangcheng's Metro Line 3, and I've seen all the human hustle and bustle there is.

Paris City originally had walls, but as the city expanded beyond them, Louis XIV, the "Sun King," ordered the demolition of the old walls. Instead, he had a ring of roads for soldier patrols built according to the existing city outline, to serve as the new walls.

But later on, the city quickly expanded beyond these roads, and Paris became a city without walls.

Of course, some remnants of the original city walls and fortresses still exist on the Île de la Cité, the heart of France, but these have long lost their defensive capabilities.

Now, the whole of Paris City only has a few fortress-like constructions such as the Bastille.

Present-day Paris is a city without gates, the boundaries between urban districts and suburbs considerably blurred.

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For someone like Anning who was entering the city for the first time, he didn't even realize when he had entered the boundaries of Paris's 48 districts.

However, this was not a novel experience for Anning, given that the periphery of large cities in later generations is also very vague, blurring the distinction between city and suburbs.

Anning rode his horse, following the Dragon Cavalry's troop through the streets of Paris.

What surprised Anning was that the sanitation of the streets was much better than he had imagined.

Before traveling through time, Anning had read a joke that said European Nobles liked to wear long stockings and high heels mainly because the streets were too dirty, full of excrement everywhere.

Now it seems this was clearly a misconception.

If you think about it, it makes sense. By the year 1780, Paris should have already established a rather comprehensive sewer system; it's not likely the streets would be full of excrement.

It's not like in India, where people are accustomed to relieving themselves anywhere.

But the streets of Paris are still quite dirty, with horses stirring up as many splashes on the cobblestone roads as they would outdoors.

Additionally, there is a strange smell in the streets, like wearing a long-unwashed jacket.

As Anning surveyed everything about Paris City, Kroetz suddenly turned his head and said, "We'll reach the Seine River soon, and you can see Notre Dame on the opposite bank. You'll be amazed."

Anning thought to himself, no, I won't be because I've already seen it in the "Assassin's Creed: Revolution" game.

—I've even climbed it—in the game.

As they spoke, the cavalry took a turn and began to travel along the banks of the Seine River.

Anning couldn't help but frown.

Because the pollution in the Seine River was beyond his expectations; a stench of household garbage wafted through the whole river.

Anning had smelled the same odor beside the Pearl River in his childhood, which had not undergone sewage treatment.

Thinking about it, it makes sense. The entire city's household waste and excrement from millions of people were discharged into the Seine River; having this smell was normal.

It's just a pity that Anning had held a little bit of romantic illusion about the Seine River, which now completely dissipated.

Kroetz glanced at Anning, showing an apologetic expression, "Uh, I know this smell is a bit unpleasant. In a while, I'll take you upstream for an outing. The river there doesn't stink, and the scenery on both banks is also very pleasant."

Anning nodded: "Please do."

At this moment, the cavalry turned another corner, and Kroetz pointed to a building ahead and said: "That is the Royal Palace, my home. My father recently decided to open the garden of the Royal Palace to the public, so you'll see many cafés and galleries. In the afternoon, many gentlemen and ladies come here to attend the salon."

Anning simply responded, "Oh." He knew that the Royal Palace was an important public space for Parisian citizens at this time, but he did not know that it was the Duke of Orleans who opened it to the public.

While they talked, the cavalry marched into the Royal Palace and stopped in front of a majestic building, where an old butler and a group of servants were already waiting.

Kroetz dismounted and turned back to Anning, saying: "Come on, let me take you to see my father."