The Eternal City

Before lunchtime, the European express slowly pulled into Lyon Station in Paris.

Paris was a major city, with seven railway stations alone. As early as the ninth century, it had already served as the capital of the Franks.

But Paris had been a naturally formed city back then. Like most cities in Western Europe, people in the Middle Ages considered bathing immoral. Feces could be seen everywhere in the streets and squares, there was no drainage system, and residents simply dumped their rubbish directly onto the streets.

Such dreadful sanitation was not only a breeding ground for plague; it also made the entire city reek. Northern and southern France had vastly different climates. The north was rainy all year round, and after the rain washed through the streets, all that rubbish left the whole city stinking. Rather than solve the city's sanitation problems, the nobles came up with the novel habit of using perfume. Thus Paris, France became the capital of perfume.

Napoleon Panama favored antiquity—or rather, he hoped to establish a united Europe modeled after the Roman Empire. He carried out sweeping renovations of Paris. Construction had begun on a grand scale as early as Louis XIV's reign. The Champs-Élysées, Luxembourg Palace, Princess Square, Place de la Concorde, and other commemorative buildings were linked by widened main roads, becoming the architectural centers of their respective districts.

Napoleon I built Place de l'Étoile and the Arc de Triomphe during his rule, and standardized the width of city streets. Napoleon III carried out another major plan for Paris. Besides improving transport and housing and developing commercial streets, he also intended to open broad roads capable of accommodating artillery and cavalry through every corner of the city.

On Paris's map, a great cross ran through the entire city, along with two ring