Kissing was hardly anything unusual. Who had never seen people kiss?
The problem was that they were not in Paris at the time, but on the remote northwestern coast. Many people had been startled by how uninhibited they were.
This did not seem like something Napoleon would do. It was more like something his brother Jérôme would do. Ever since that British woman had appeared, he had not been acting normally, and it was precisely because of this that the British believed he truly desired peace.
Whether Caesar or Antony, both had fallen at Cleopatra's feet. Only Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, could make the god of war remove his armor. Adonis flowers were rare in France, yet they were also an extremely dangerous poisonous plant, remarkably similar in appearance to foxgloves. They represented Adonis, the shared lover of the goddess of love and Persephone, wife of the god of the underworld. They were also known as Devil's Eye. Red Adonis flowers were less dangerous than yellow ones, while the yellow ones looked especially dazzling, like The Sun.
Louis XIV liked tulips and imported great quantities from the Netherlands every year. Tulip mania had already passed by then, but they could still fetch high prices at the court in France, because tulips were high-ranking court flowers.
Tulip blossoms were poisonous. They were suitable only as ornamental plants, not for close viewing in enclosed rooms. Yet noblewomen pinned them to the bodices of their evening gowns. No wonder they were constantly suffering from dizziness and fainting at the slightest emotional excitement. Tulips themselves could produce such toxic side effects; severe cases could even lead to hair loss. No wonder they needed wigs.
Of course, once Madame Sèvres said so, the gardeners conscientiously dug up the tulips. Bees could not tell