In the long Middle Ages, Norman warhorses had been the first choice of British knights.
But by the fourteenth century, after the Plantagenet dynasty lost all its lands in France, Britain had no choice but to import horses from France and the Low Countries at high prices.
Unlike Britain, medieval France produced an abundance of fine horses. Percherons made French cavalry dominant across Europe. They were among the few heavy horses that combined speed and endurance. Using such horses to pull one's carriage now was truly extravagant.
Given the choice between climbing into the carriage herself and being carried into it, Georgiana wisely chose the former.
The First Consul rode in one carriage while she rode in another. Unlike his, hers was extremely inconspicuous, no different from an ordinary noble's carriage.
She was thus quietly taken back to the Grand Trianon. Fortunately, she had not been sent to a bedroom in the Tuileries Palace like those opera stars, though there was essentially no difference.
While he had not yet returned, she went to bathe in the luxurious bath Louis XIV had built. As she soaked, she rested with her eyes closed and thought over what Leoncourt had said.
France's horse administration had weakened as farmland continued to expand. To avoid creating extra burdens, the French army did not even carry tents, because transporting them required additional horses and wagons.
Although France had plenty of arable land, its yield was low. It was cultivated only once a year. After the French Revolution, France distributed land to the peasants. It sounded like a good thing, and the peasants had land of their own.
Though Britain's Enclosure Movement had been bloody, it had reallocated land resources. The adjusted land was replanned and put under crop rotation. Of four plots, two were farmed and