Expanding Paris

Joseph's carriage was still three or four kilometers from Versailles Palace when he found the surrounding area already a sea of people.

Eman glanced out the window and explained, "Your Highness, the competition won't officially begin for another two days. These people must have come from out of town to watch."

Normally, entering Versailles Palace required strict adherence to a dress code, but during the Star of France competition, people could freely enter and leave Versailles Palace Square, just as they had on the King's birthday.

Thus, large numbers of ordinary people had come to camp outside the square, waiting for the competition to begin.

They would not find it dull, however. Thanks to the enormous influence of the Star of France, vendors of every stripe had long since set up their stalls here.

From snacks to fruit, from toys to shoes and hats, from painters to cobblers, they packed the open ground on both sides of the road for a full seven or eight kilometers. Hawkers' cries, music, and the chatter of passersby rang out incessantly, forming an enormous open-air shopping street.

Some enterprising people had even pitched hundreds of tents beneath the shade of the trees to serve as temporary inns.

Worried that such a large crowd might cause trouble, Brienne had even sent the Court Guard to patrol the "shopping street," lending it even more of the atmosphere of a bustling market.

As Joseph watched the lively, prosperous scene outside his carriage, an idea stirred in his mind.

Why not seize the opportunity to build a shopping street or something here?

As France continued to develop, Paris's population was bound to grow, especially after Fashion Week and the Metrology Standardization Conference. Not only were more members of the French lesser nobility pouring into Paris, but the number