Joan E DeJean

An exploration of how French culture during the reign of Louis XIV has had an enduring influence on modern traditions and style cites the French origins of haute cuisine, interior design, and the consumption of celebratory champagne.

"On December 12, 1719, a ship named La Mutine, or the Mutinous Woman, sailed from the French port of Le Havre, bound for the vast North American territory then referred to as "the Mississippi." La Mutine was loaded with goods that the fledgling French colony urgently required for its survival, basic foodstuffs such as flour and lard. But its principal commodity was a new kind of French export: women. The women who arrived in the New World from that...

In this compelling portrait of a city in transition, Joan DeJean shows that by 1700 Paris had become the capital that would transform forever our conception of the city and of urban life.