The date was March 11th, 1829.
Today is the date of Napoleon II's eighteenth birthday. It was to be held in the Palace of Versailles where he would officially live! Just as promised by his father, Napoleon I.
He was on his way to the Palace of Versailles. He was in an ornate carriage with windows allowing him to look outside the progress of the city.
The city modernization plan, based on Haussmann projects, was already underway nine years ago.
The cramped and dirty streets of Paris were turning into something else entirely.
Wide avenues cut through districts that had once been a maze of alleys. Stone façades stood in clean, continuous lines instead of leaning into one another like conspirators. Sunlight reached the ground now. Air moved. Carts no longer jammed themselves into dead ends meant for pedestrians and livestock.
Napoleon II watched it pass from behind the carriage glass.
Work was everywhere.
