> Move it to Porte Maillot in Neuilly a fortnight or so later.
> 1. Yes. It ran from the second weekend in June until 7th July with a different main attraction every day. Extremely popular and famous

Ok, let's do this. What bothers me is that I find no source for this on the web. Any pointers?

> It would be many decades before the name Jessie lost its negative connotations for girls 

We can change the name. "Willie" might be ok, but it doesn't sound so well to my contemporary ears. What about yours? As an alternative, what do you think about "Jo"?

> "throngs" (I love that word)

I'm ashamed to say that this word is Google Translate's idea... (original text here)

Thanks a lot @Temperance, I will have a look.
For reference, it seems both books are in public domain and downloadable in epub format here and here.

I wondered about Francis, which in late 19th century England/America was both a male and female name, to I think about the same degree of popularity. So she could freely use Francis as herself or when in disguise as a man, and so she wouldn't have to worry about a different name on a passport etc. Also in its French form as François (male) or Françoise (female) it was readily acceptable as a common French name and generally understood to be a direct equivalent of the English, Francis. If she needs to shorten it, Frank or Franky was the common short male form in English, while Fran was a short female form (as was Fanny, although I expect Fanny might not be so acceptable today, although my grandmother, born in 1886, was baptised Fanny rather than Francis and has Fanny on her birth certificate too, though she was usually known as Fran). The short form Frank, as Franky or Frankie, would probably be just about acceptable for a woman's name too, particularly as a familial tomboyish nickname (and seeing as she's a gun-toting, Navaho-speaking, ninja, does it matter if she chooses to adopt a rather incongruously boyish moniker?). Also if using Francis, then in French, as François(e), it is just the final 'e' that clearly indicates the gender ... which again is handy should she need to imply that a doccument applies to a different gender, ie if a note is signed Francois everyone would immediately assume it was written by a man - but add an 'e' and the author would be assumed to be female, and visa versa.

Sylvain wrote:

1. Ok, let's do this. What bothers me is that I find no source for this on the web. Any pointers?

2. We can change the name. "Willie" might be ok, but it doesn't sound so well to my contemporary ears. What about yours? As an alternative, what do you think about "Jo"?

1. Mary McAuliffe has written about it in both of her books about the Belle Epoque - "Dawn of ..." and "Twilight of ...". I found this poster up for sale on the net:



And here's the dodgems:





2. "Willie" would be terrible. "Jo" works better - in French it could be understood as short for Josephine, a popular name even then. Or maybe Nin-Jo?


.

For the 1900 Summer Olympics, Neuilly was also intended to be the venue for the the pelota tournament, but only two teams, France and Spain, registered and then France withdrew before the competition, so the first prize was given to the Spanish team without a single match being played.

I wonder how those dodgems were powered. There are no obvious overhead electrical pickups like on modern dodgem cars, nor are there signs of a floor pickup system, which might anyway be quite dangerous without modern diode-based electronics. They don't seem to be peddle-powered and I doubt lead-acid batteries would give anywhere near enough power. At this date there were very few petrol engine vehicles of any type on the roads, so small internal combustion engines (like on go-karts) seem most unlikely. So however were they propelled?

> So however were they propelled?
Gravity?

Meles meles wrote:

I wonder how those dodgems were powered.

I think Sylvain must be correct with gravity - how hilly is Neuilly? (that rhymes!).

Since one of the big attractions at Neuilly that summer was the use of electric street lights I doubt if they had progressed beyond a single high voltage circuit system. If they were using that then I sincerely hope anyone stepping out on to those presumably metal plates covering the road surface had good thick rubber soles on their shoes!

At the time of the Exhibition Paris had almost 60,000 street lamps, mostly an incandescent gas system, with some arc lamp set-ups on the more prestigious thoroughfares. They hadn't as yet adopted high voltage systems with bulb by-pass technology to allow continuous service as had become standard in the US and other big cities in Europe. As with the Metro project, interminable arguing at city corporation level had delayed any decision for over a decade. Given the potential profits to be gained I assume some enterprising individuals had seized on the Neuilly Festival to advertise how cheaply and simply a whole suburb could be lit using the newer system. It also gave them the opportunity to construct "pictures" using coloured bulbs on alternate circuits, which I imagine would have been a huge attraction in Paris at the time. But all very high voltage stuff - not quite ready for risking punters' lives by plonking them in motors picking up from 2,000 volts running through a live surface six inches under their arses.

Temperance wrote:

Sylvain, you might like to check out Jean Rhys's novel, Quartet, which was published in 1928

I remember that book - reminded me a lot of Henry Miller's stuff at the time. Just when you think things can't get drunker, more sordid or potentially catastrophic for the narrator the author starts a new paragraph ...

Mind you, if Marya had been a ninja cowboy she might have managed to avoid most of her travails!

Seriously, Rhys's own actual life makes for a much better story than her novels, I reckon. It's certainly crying out to be made into a film, or at least a movie based on "Voyage In The Dark", which is very close to autobiographical too.

nordmann wrote:

Temperance wrote:

Sylvain, you might like to check out Jean Rhys's novel, Quartet, which was published in 1928

I remember that book - reminded me a lot of Henry Miller's stuff at the time. Just when you think things can't get drunker, more sordid or potentially catastrophic for the narrator the author starts a new paragraph ...

Mind you, if Marya had been a ninja cowboy she might have managed to avoid most of her travails!  

Seriously, Rhys's own actual life makes for a much better story than her novels, I reckon. It's certainly crying out to be made into a film, or at least a movie based on "Voyage In The Dark", which is very close to autobiographical too.

  


Good grief, nordmann, I actually agree absolutely with all you say above. This won't do!   

I've been thinking about what Josie is going to wear - also the three "elegant" ladies who seem to be mocking her. Women's fashion in 1900 Paris - and what it said about the changing world - interests me quite a bit. Here again Jean Rhys could help: her Good Morning, Midnight has a heroine who works briefly in a Paris fashion house, albeit a couple of decades later. Here's the blurb from the back of the Penguin edition:


In 1930s Paris, where one cheap hotel room is very like another, a young woman is teaching herself indifference. She has escaped personal tragedy and has come to France to find courage and seek independence. She tells herself to expect nothing, especially not kindness, least of all men. Tomorrow, she resolves, she will dye her hair blonde..."


PS Re film of Rhys's life - yes indeed - they should use Carole Angier's superb biography Jean Rhys; also The Blue Hour by Lilian Pizzichini. I recommend both if you haven't already read them. Agree too it's all - novels and life -  pretty depressing, but shot through with a ferocious, biting wit. I should loved to have met the woman She lived down here for a bit - in Bude (which she called Bude the Obscure) and later near Exeter in a miserable little village where she fought all her neighbours - usually when drunk. The former landlady of the pub there still remembers her - but is reluctant to talk about Rhys. I tried, but she was very wary of me - obviously thought I was a nosy furriner from London

Ah yes I didn't think about the simplest solution - gravity. Wiki gives the elevation of the modern commune of Neuilly as being between 27 and 39m (89–128 ft), which doesn't give much to play with even if the whole district is on a nice slope, but it could probably have been increased by using existing or pupose-built temporary structures or earthworks - the photo above presumably shows the top end, but it isn't clear if it's at ground level or raised up.

Floor pickup systems need not be particulalry dangerous. Modern ground pickup bumper car systems use alternating conductive metal strips on the floor, one positive, the next earthed, the next positive etc, and the current it picked up by brushes underneath the cars. Typically the floor system is all run from a single DC transformer, so that the dodgems share a voltage of 54v between them and an amperage of 800A, which is quite high but essentially safe to touch with dry hands. But that's with modern electronics which will trip out the whole circuit in fractions of a second if there's a dead short or if an over or under current is detected, and will not turn back on until the short is cleared. I doubt whether 1900 electrics would have such effective safeguards.

It's not important but I was intrigued ... and I now see that Temperance has posted something to bring me back on topic.

Temp wrote:

I've been thinking about what Josie is going to wear

Good call on the character's potential name there, Temp! "Josie" was at the time a popular shortening of "Joseph" in the USA, whereas in Europe it was practically unheard of and therefore would have been readily accepted as short for "Josephine" too if the person using it presented themselves as a female. This means the character can use the confusion to their benefit in many different ways while in Europe - in correspondence she can allow the recipient to assume she's male, and if she adopts male guise in her ninja duties she doesn't have to keep remembering a false name either!

I'm investing way too much thought in this wee lassie's potential credibility ....

1. Location

Ok, so Neuilly it is (connection at Porte Maillot), during the carnival.

2. Names

I think I was wrong from the beginning. The very first criteria is that names sound cool to contemporary readers. The second criteria is that they are historically correct.

So I think she needs those names:

1. The official one: given by her parents, an east coast American and the daughter of Russian exiles, both very francophile. Hence my initial choice: Jeanne Bennett. I think Françoise doesn't sound good to contemporary French ears.

2. Familial nicknames (thanks MM), also given by her parents/grandparents. There can be up to 3 of them: tomboyish by the father, Russian by the grandparents (long diminutive :-), whatever by the mother (Josie?).

3. Fake English given and family names she's chosen after she ran away, to use in the US and Mexico. Must be unisex if possible, quite common (as to not drawing attention) and quite different from 1 and 2 (so that her father cannot find her). Could be Francis, the issue being that Francis is also a male-only name in France, so French readers will be a bit puzzled.

4. Fake French given and family name shes uses in France. Must be unisex if possible, quite common (as to not drawing attention) and quite different from 1 and 2 (so that her father cannot find her).

5. An Indian name (Indian nation to be sorted out, my guess from what I know about latest Indian wars: Apache)

As Temperance said: names are important :-)

3. Forum

I now have difficulties finding my way in this thread. Too much information. Would you agree if I'd copy/past parts of what is written here in my own collaborative platform? (including author names and links to this forum) Does it go against this forum's policy?

Sylvain wrote:

I think I was wrong from the beginning. The very first criteria is that names sound cool to contemporary readers. The second criteria is that they are historically correct.

So I think she needs those names:

1. The official one: given by her parents, an east coast American and the daughter of Russian exiles, both very francophile. Hence my initial choice: Jeanne Bennett. I think Françoise doesn't sound good to contemporary French ears.

2. Familial nicknames (thanks MM), also given by her parents/grandparents. There can be up to 3 of them: tomboyish by the father, Russian by the grandparents (long diminutive :-), whatever by the mother (Josie?).

3. Fake English given and family names she's chosen after she ran away, to use in the US and Mexico. Must be unisex if possible, quite common (as to not drawing attention) and quite different from 1 and 2 (so that her father cannot find her). Could be Francis, the issue being that Francis is also a male-only name in France, so French readers will be a bit puzzled.

4. Fake French given and family name shes uses in France. Must be unisex if possible, quite common (as to not drawing attention) and quite different from 1 and 2 (so that her father cannot find her).

5. An Indian name (Indian nation to be sorted out, my guess from what I know about latest Indian wars: Apache)

Ok - my case for "Josie" based on the above criteria.

1. Josifa/Josephine (Russian and American equivalents of the same name).
2. Josi/Josie/Josipa (children's familial names when christened as above)
3. Josie/Pepita (shortened or petname versions as would be accepted in USA and Mexico, the latter probably being enough to throw her dad off the scent)
4. Josi/Josée (hardly attention drawing as it would be assumed to be short for Josephine) but if she wants to be completely radical she could go for Peta/Perette - (see 5 below)
5. Peta - native American name meaning "golden eagle" from the Black Foot Nation. Can be construed in France 1900 to be a colloquial form of Perette or Per.

You can certainly paste my stuff over there - and thanks if you stick in a link.

What follows in the story takes place at night in a wealthy area of Neuilly. Jessie (I'll keep that name for now) is supposed to slip into a building, get to the rooftop, and shoot at the house on the other side of the street.

My initial idea is that the building is close to the river Seine, maybe near the Pont de Neuilly or Ile de la Gande Jatte. Jessy enters a sewer tunnel that flows into the Seine, then takes advantage of an internal crumbling to access the building's cave (how she got to know about the crumbling and why she has the key of the metal gate is another story).

So my question is: were there, in 1900 in Neuilly, sewer tunnels flowing into the Seine?

The only sewer in that area seems to enter the Seine on the NE side of the Pont d'Asnières at Clichy. This is from 'Map of the sewers of Paris, engraving from Paris-Guide by leading writers and artists of France, Volume 2, Life, 1867'. :



This 1889 map doesn't quite cover the area you want but by comparing to the above it suggests that there was still only one sewer entering the Seine at Clichy (blue lines are the sewers from before 1878, red were later additions):



The branch sewer that passes under the NE end of Neuilly is shown as 'projected' in the 1867 map but completed in the 1889 map. Assuming the Paris sewers were like London's sewers these two maps show only the major 'trunk' sewers - smaller sewer tunnels would pass along most streets but they might be as little a couple of metres tall and wide (and half deep in effluent) and these in turn would connect to the individual buildings above by small pipes (probably cast iron in 1900). So rather like this:



... and cross sections of the Paris sewer system on rebuilding in the late 19th century - note the scale in metres at bottom left, so the sewer at top left is about 9m wide, that at bottom right 2m wide.



So while she could enter the sewer outfall at the Pont d'Asnières, I doubt she could get into a cellar direct from the sewers unless there was a manhole access point. Manholes would usually be outside in the street (as shown in the illustration above) but I suppose could be located in the backyard of a building, perhaps because of redevelopment of the above area. Neuilly was originally outside the city wall and in 1900 was a relatively recently developed suburb, so I think it would be unlikely to have any of the hidden, ancient, rambling and uncharted medieval sewer tunnels that existed in the centre of Paris (as decribed in 'Les Miserables') and which did indeed sometimes connect with ancient cellars, old abandoned cesspits and walled-up oubliettes.

Just to add to the above, I wondered if she might be able to get into the cellar from the Paris catacombs or ancient mines. Unfortunately all the old ossuaries lie south of Paris, and while there were mines for gypsum and building stone under NW Paris, they don't quite get near enough to Neuilly (the closest are just to the east of the Bois de Boulogne while Neuilly itself is located under the map's key at top left).

Thanks a lot, MM.

Yes, on the pictures from 1900, Neuilly seems to have recent haussmannien buildings and avenues, so I think it is safe to assume that the sewer system is as modern as Paris' one. 

As you said, tunnels are under streets and avenues. From your maps, I think it's logical to conclude that Neuilly's main sewer (maybe under boulevard du Château) goes toward North East (using gravity, parallel to the Seine downstream direction) until it reaches the main Clichy sewer.

So my idea of a sewer flowing into the Seine in Neuilly is wrong.

But:

* You don't need a manhole in the middle of the street to enter the sewer, at least in Paris. I think there are entrances in the back of railway embankments, inside railway tunnels, as small buildings leaning back against hills, etc. In Neuilly, maybe such entrances existed in the Seine embankments. I will research this.

* In small streets at least, sewers are at the same depth than caves. So maybe we can imagine that a brick-laying collapse or sewage work (for example to connect a new building to the sewage) can temporarily create a passage between the sewer and a cave.

As planned, I updated the story with Porte Maillot instead of Trocadero. You can check here for the new version and some pictures of Porte Maillot (with its surprising aerodrome).

Hello, Sy. I have not posted here before but have been following the thread progress. Being the regular Res Hist site Pain, I feel pressured into expressing concern about what the character 'pro temps called Jessie' has on her feet. Lacking knowledge of sewers (International) - and roof tops (French) come to that, I am concerned about the  lack of early 20C trainers suitable for such routes. And would she keep her gun in her handbag?

I am not quite as daft as it may appear because I have written a bit in my time and so  visualise the detail.  And that can drive one to researching for days...…..do avoid anything to do with horses feet and their harness…. or double shafted arrows and ancient sail reefing is immediate advice. I'd better go.

Hello Priscilla, thanks for your post.

> And would she keep her gun in her handbag?

Ah, you've forgot about the gigantic (hence mysterious) suitcase Jessie is carrying. Here is the full text as a reminder. Her weapons and cow-girl costumes are in there.

> lack of early 20C trainers suitable for such routes. 

Well, yes, you don't speak much about shoes and corns in popular fiction. In Top Gun, nobody tells you pilots in mission use nappies and plastic bottles...

As with most things I am out of touch - so the poor love is lugging a loaded suit case down sewers and across roof tops her dress drenched with sewer discharge and a vagueness about her feet. Oh I see its that kind of novel. I'll back off then.... unless you ever want the cleaner's five penneth of advice.  Anyway.Tom Cruse would have used a bottle had it been scripted in, so.

> so the poor love is lugging a loaded suit case down sewers and across roof tops

She'll just take what she needs from the suitcase (including three pairs of shoes, if that's required) then let the suitcase and dress at the sewer entrance.

See my issue here: either I tell the whole story I have in mind and then there's no point discussing with people because everything is already set, or I tell it piece by piece so that people can actually influence it.

Still wanting the five penneth of advice (which I prefer to call participation). That's what I'm prepared to do.

Contributing to the scenario seems like the old 3 tumblers and nut trick to me...… as if  I could ever influence anyone on this site. Perish the thought. An interesting concept.t tho, Sy, but writing is hard enough grind so it must be a bit like picking at scabs unless you get really committed contributors who know their stuff like MM, nord and Temps. You really don't need me. And getting the poor woman to lug a case load of stuff to fulfil your prophecies its a wonder she does not leap from the pages and clobber you with it... Miss Piggy style.( I am a devoted fan of Miss Piggy and the surreal, of course.)

Thinking of wading through the muck -they'd probably slow her down terribly but the woman could wear pattens - a sort of overshoe to keep someone's main pair of shoes out of the muck in the days of horsedrawn traffic  (the linked Wikipedia article says they were still in use in the early 20th century).  They'd be awfully noisy I imagine though and it's already been remarked the lady is carrying a suitcase which would weigh her down so pattens might just put the tin lid on it in that respect.  She'd likely be moving at snail's pace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patten_%28shoe%29

Priscilla wrote:

 And getting the poor woman to lug a case load of stuff to fulfil your prophecies its a wonder she does not leap from the pages and clobber you with it... Miss Piggy style.( I am a devoted fan of Miss Piggy and the surreal, of course.)

I actually like that idea! Our doughty heroine getting furious at her creators who, from their 21st century perspective, seem to be turning her into a Carrie Mathison/Miss Piggy icon, having her teeter precariously on her pattens through the Parisian sewage system, her monster suitcase in tow. It's completely mad, but I rather like the clobbering idea. Don't forget to take your meds, our Carrie Jessie!

I too feel completely out of touch - I always thought you had to think when writing historical stuff: "What is possible? What is plausible?" But that is so last century, darling! I need another cup of tea.


PS Don't wander off again, Priscilla! We need a bit of pith.

Our heroine (shero?) would be wearing the sneakers of her day, I reckon, low-heeled Oxfords (actually a French fashion originally) which were the go-to universal footwear for any woman at the turn of the century anticipating a lot of urban walking, cross-country ninja-ing, and even a little sewer exploration.



The best restaurants might have frowned at someone traipsing in with a pair of sewer-soiled Oxfords on their plates of meat but they were easily salvaged by a handy shoe-shiner so in most cases could be worn throughout the whole day.

PS: I see she is now divesting herself of her dress as well as her luggage while in the sewer. I sincerely hope she's not in a hurry - at least if she's kitted herself out in the mandatory three layers that she'd have on her while attempting to traverse Paris as a young lady without attracting undue attention (I'm assuming she's already foregone a corset, frilly bloomers, and complicated chemise in anticipation of future ninja-ing).

If she's intending to be clambering around on Parisian roofs she's going to need better footwear than a pair of Oxford brogues, Haussmann buildings are notorious for their steeply-inclined mansard roofs clad in slippery sheets of galvanized-iron.



Perhaps she should dress like a typical 1900s alpiniste:



And for going through the sewers, a helmet and light would be useful. Here's Elizabeth Casteret sporting a WW1 French army helmet modified to support an acetylene gas-jet headlight, during exploration of caves in the Haut Pyrénées in about 1931:

Sylvain, just letting you know that the Castafiore web page has an issue with its security settings that might prevent people accessing it. Anyone with a browser set up to reject un-signed or unknown certificates will get a caution on the way in, or even be blocked entirely if they're using a web reputation feature in their antivirus. Whoever owns the site should really be told this - it should be possible to fix up its SSL settings pretty quickly.


But, that aside, I've just been in and looked at the timeline stuff - I hadn't read it before. So now I have a better idea of what the girl is up to this day in Neuilly:

Jessie decides to strafe the windows of Hausendorf to scare him. Disguised as a worker, she goes to Neuilly, where Hausendorf’s pavilion is located, to prepare the operation (access and escape).

On the day planned for the attack, Jessie goes to Neuilly with her equipment. At night, she shoots at Hausendorf and Eugène through the windows. But the operation goes wrong for Jessie, because the surveillance of Bennett’s men is more extensive than expected. She must flee in a hurry, using Eugene, injured, as a hostage. She is forced to take him home, to Clichy, to treat him.

"Disguised as a worker" is a problem. I've had a look at statistics related to women's reported professions at time of marriage between 1890 and 1910. This website even gives one a department by department breakdown so one can see exactly how she would have needed to disguise herself if she wanted those around her to immediately presume she was a "worker". As you can see by far the greatest occupation was service - and while this certainly would have meant a uniform or livery for the majority of women, even more specialised versions of domestic service such as nanny, governess etc, would have typically required extremely conservative garb, especially if one is trying to "sell" the identity to casual onlookers.

The next big category for female workers in Paris would have been factory hand. Now this gives the girl a little more chance of success in that her disguise can be inexpensive and less elaborate, though still very much a dress much more complicated than today, practical for light labour tasks but not for climbing through sewers, over rooftops etc. And of course even if she fooled onlookers they might still wonder why a factory girl was travelling around in omnibuses lugging a big bag of artillery etc.

Other categories involve the few women who had "office" jobs at the time - secretaries, receptionists, and the odd manager. With these you're in serious trouble. They would also have dressed for the task, and though certainly suitably attired would not necessarily have been presumed to be a "worker" in that garb, which also doubled as perfectly decent everyday attire for respectable matrons.

If she really needs to get all ninja, and navigate sewers etc en route, I think she'd best be disguised as a "working man", to be honest. If she keeps quiet, doesn't engage in "saucy allusions" with strangers, and wears a good peaked cap that hides her hair and features, she might just make it from Clichy to Neuilly as a young lad on an errand. However she's going to have this problem every time she tries to lug her arsenal around with her in 1900 Paris, so maybe it might be best to keep her off public transport and away from large crowds entirely. In which case she's not only in the wrong city at the wrong time, but possibly in the wrong story too.

It's much easier with male protagonists in history. They get/got around much easier ...

@Priscilla, @Temperance, I'm confused. Do you imply that today's pop culture heroes can run on roofs (and dance in sewers) because they got the right clothes and shoes? And hence that it is implausible that pop culture heroes from 1900 could do the same because they'd lack the required clothes and shoes?... I'd rather think the abilities to run on roof, visit sewers and fire weapons while riding horses are timeless pop culture hero abilities.

@MM, inclined roofs of Haussmann buildings is a real problem. Maybe a balcony would be more appropriate, or breaking into an appartement to access the window. I will think about it.

Since “Jessie” must be discarded, here are my current thoughts:
* Official names : Josephine Natalia Bennett
* Familial nicknames: Father -> Joss?, Mother -> Josie, Grandparents -> Natasha, Taliusha, Tasha
* Fictitious English names: Eddie/Johnnie/Jimmie/Bennie? Brown
* Fictitious French names: Jean/Jeanne/Louis/Louise? Martin
* Native American name: to be defined later

@nordmann, I will answer your remarks in a moment.

Got your mail, Sylvain, and did a few tests in an IT lab.

I've checked access using 3 versions of Chrome, 2 versions of IE, Edge, and Mozilla Firefox. All report problems with the site security. Older Chrome and IE allow access with a warning. The newest versions block access. Edge gives a warning and then when you put in "proceed anyway" it gets blocked anyway. FireFox I tested was actually an older version and it worked fine.

If I activate FortiClient Web Reputation on the client I tested from then it gets blocked regardless of browser. If I activate Apex One Web Reputation on the client it allows me to choose temporary access, after which then the browser behaves as above, so it's not always successful.

The root cause appears to be an unsigned SSL certificate. The encryption being used means that the browser cannot verify that the certificate was in fact issued by the named domain, even though it is an HTTPS site (most likely because the SSL cert is actually issued by the domain's own host). If you're the administrator, and you're paying for the website from a vendor, then they must surely have a signed SSL cert that they use for all their customers and which can be quickly deployed? It's what I do with this site, though the vendor charges a small fee for renewal.

@nordmann, thanks. 
I sort of manage the SSL certificate myself. Well, in fact it is supposed to be automatically registered by the Discourse platform, which I manage myself. I think it is a redirection issue: I set Discourse to redirect castafiore[.]org to www[.]castafiore[.]org, but the certificate is only valid for www[.]castafiore[.]org. Do you confirm there's no issue with https://www.castafiore.org?

That's even worse "This site can't be reached" is the message I get in Chrome.

That's an issue with this forum, which creates invalid links. I've edited my answer above to fix this.

Same thing. Insecure site and "Can't be reached" in Chrome or "Hmmm...can't reach" in Edge. Tried Binging and Googling it too but get "site not found - may have moved" answers to the search.

I've just fixed the only issue I could reproduce on my side (the Firefox-only one). Does it make a difference on your side?

Not in the lab anymore - but certainly working on my own PC without warnings now.

Now, meanwhile in the Paris sewers ...

Thanks a lot.

nordmann wrote:

Sylvain, ...
But, that aside, I've just been in and looked at the timeline stuff - I hadn't read it before. So now I have a better idea of what the girl is up to this day in Neuilly:

Jessie decides to strafe the windows of Hausendorf to scare him. Disguised as a worker, she goes to Neuilly, where Hausendorf’s pavilion is located, to prepare the operation (access and escape).

On the day planned for the attack, Jessie goes to Neuilly with her equipment. At night, she shoots at Hausendorf and Eugène through the windows. But the operation goes wrong for Jessie, because the surveillance of Bennett’s men is more extensive than expected. She must flee in a hurry, using Eugene, injured, as a hostage. She is forced to take him home, to Clichy, to treat him.

...
It's much easier with male protagonists in history. They get/got around much easier ...

If the quoted bit in the above, I for whom English is not a first language, have a problem with the use of 'extensive surveillance' being a step up in security, I should have preferred the word 'intensive', but that might an idea of mine.

I'd have thought that it would be easy enough for her to assume the get up of  er um  street worher of the time. Taking an injured man through the streets as if drunk would not be a problem nor odd clothes daubed with Phul Nana perfume from the east which would disguise sewer effects world wide.

Cannot speak for Temps but I reckon modern pop culture heroines would not go into the sewers - unless her 7in heel Jimmy Choo went down a drain. Miss Piggy wouldn't any way.... she might enjoy being a street worker as a disguise  Of course dressing as a  'night soil ' collector with cart might resolve several issues. Dear God there are other things I ought to be doing just now.

 It must just be me getting old, but I have to confess I am utterly bewildered by what is going on here. Has Jessie been at the absinthe? Is she wandering about with her portmanteau in a drug-befuddled nightmare?


 How different, how very different, from the writing style of our own dear Hilary Mantel.


PS

Priscilla wrote:

Cannot speak for Temps but I reckon modern pop culture heroines would not go into the sewers...

I'm actually fascinated by sewers: before I die I want to go down the ancient sewers in Rome (not at the moment though) - also the London sewage system. I'm sure they do tours.

There was a 1937 film, Seventh Heaven, starring James Stewart:


In a rough neighborhood of Paris in 1914, atheistic sewer worker Chico (James Stewart) rescues a young woman named Diane (Simone Simon) being beaten by her sister Nana (Gale Sondergaard) for not being nice to an older man, a patron in the sister's disreputable dance hall... 




"An atheistic sewer worker..."  I love it!  Can we get one in this story somewhere?

As you know I used to go caving, so underground tunnels, including sewers, I too find fascinating. I've been on sewer tours under London and Brighton and they were great, but when you say the sewers of Rome, did you mean the catacombs? I've been down them too, as well as an underground ossuary in Italy, though I forget where it was and those are something rather different.

Returning to the heroine of this tale - if she needs to carry bundles of spare or muddied clothing about the streets of Neuilly, that shouldn't raise too much suspicion as the town was well known as a hub for the clothing business - for haute couture certainly but also at the other end in the second-hand clothes market, with several laundries and clothes sorting businesses (Neully-sur-Seine, archives municipals, articles historiques). I doubt a young working woman carrying a bundle of dirty clothes would arouse much interest.

@Nielsen, I've replaced extensive by intensive in there.

@nordmann, by "worker" I indeed meant "working man", sorry for that. I've changed it in the document.

Now a question remains: why does Jessie go to Neuilly disguised as a man the first time (which probably is the best thing to do), but not disguised the second time? I'm not entirely sure :-) She is 22 and she is a daredevil. The second time, she needs to carry her one meter-long Winchester carbine that she doesn't like to take to pieces (in case she needs it right now).
Of course she could disguise as a man again, but then she'd need a specific corporation, allowed to circulate with tools at 8pm. I'm sure we can find something, but there is a comical dimension in the huge suitcase, that suggests Jessie's immature character and "bull in a china-shop" spirit. So if the suitcase is not an absolute no-go, I prefer to keep it. 
By the way, maybe Jessie is dressed as a provincial moving to Paris, which would (partially) explain the suitcase. I think people coming from Lyon or Brittany were the most common at the time.

> "An atheistic sewer worker..."  I love it!  Can we get one in this story somewhere?

There is already one. See here.

@MM, thanks for this excellent article. I had forgotten about those "midinettes". 

About the "midinette race" mentioned at the end of the article:


And many pictures here.

Re the  large suitcase. Having inherited an attic load of ancient ones I ought say that the big ones of that period were very heavy before packing - and a  1m long carbine would not be light either. Among this heap were lighter things of canvas and also a large carpet bag which was much lighter and easier to handle and rather attractive.

Did suitcases even exist in 1900? Or were there only trunks?
Were there one meter long carpet bags?

Some fascinating stuff here about suitcases:


The History of the Humble Suitcase




Suitcases began as an afterthought in the luggage and leather goods business, but they soon became the very symbol of travel. An 1897 wholesale price list included the words “suit case” only twice in a 20-page list of luggage types. In a 1907 T. Eaton & Co. catalogue, trunks took up a full page while suitcases share a page with club bags and valises. In a 1911 United Company catalogue, however, around 40 percent of the advertisements were for suitcases. (It's worth pointing out that these catalogues were from North America, where migration required people—and not just the wealthy—to carry their own belongings far and often).
Early suitcases (usually called “suit cases” or “suit-cases”) were lighter and more portable than trunks, but they were still bulky by today's standards. Leather, wicker or thick rubbery cloth was stretched over a rigid wood or steel frame. Corners were rounded out using brass or leather caps. Such suitcases tended to have roughly the proportions of a hardback book: flattened and easy to carry, with a handle on the long side. Until steamship travel declined during the mid-20th century, many were advertised as waterproof. Lightweight models were often marketed specifically to women.

All very important stuff regarding the bag - this is a graphic novel after all so you can't "hide" the bag through a vague prose reference. It has to be seen, so has to be right.

I'm with the carpetbaggers here, myself, though if I was lugging arms around town I'd probably have opted for a good old Gladstone Bag (a handbag?! A HANDBAG???!!!). They'd been around since the 1850s and were good, sturdy, not too heavy, waterproof portmanteaux. Doctors adopted them for that reason, as did many tradesmen, and their usefulness as light luggage meant they travelled around the world, so wouldn't look too out of place in anyone's hand at the time.

Here's a nice sixteen incher (other sizes were of course available)

Paris, Orléans station, September 1900, new delivery baggage system:

Going into the World, by Evert Jan Boks (1838-1914), 1882: