The closest we Nerdy History Girls come to time travel is exercising our imaginations, based on what we find in historical materials. As to actual time travel—I’m not sure I want to go there without inoculations against a host of diseases. Also, I’m not sure how well I’d cope with the smells. My fantasy is a sort of bubble, in which I’m invisible to others, and which contains a translation device that allows me to understand what people are saying. This would include speakers of English, whose pronunciation not only varies depending on locale, but has also changed over time.
While not in English, this video gives a hint of what it might be like in that bubble, walking through a part of Paris in the 1700s.*
*My thanks to author Lauren Willig, whose Facebook post I stole it from.
Readers who receive our blog via email might see a rectangle, square, or nothing where the video ought to be. To watch the video, please click on the title to this post.
One of us -- 
5 comments:
Thank you, thank you (and Lauren Willig)--you made my day!
I'm definitely glad to have walked through there in a bubble. I had never realized how tall the buildings were and can only imagine the sheer volume of people residing within the city limits. The noise and stench must have been overwhelming, then again, I guess those living there got used to it on some level. If I lived back then, I would definitely opt for a rural home or a small village.
That was a cool project they put together. It reminded me of a first person PC game. I kept expecting other characters to pop out of the shadows and ask me questions. ;-)
Thanks for sharing!
I'm with you. The smells would probably make me ill and I'd be too worried about all the uncleanliness of the time to want to eat or drink everything, but oh, if I could travel back in time inside that bubble you mentioned, how I could experience what it would have been like! That would certainly help add to that vivid details I strive to put in my books. Thanks for sharing this project.
It makes you realize how large the bubble was that the wealthy lived in, that having the right silk gown for the right time of day was such a conspicuous display it is hard to imagine now. Can you imagine what it must of felt like, living in such unsanitary conditions, to visit the French Court and see how the other 0.25% lived? Wealth was flaunted in a way it is not today.
I always wonder how I'd survive, how I'd earn a living. My sewing isn't up to their snuff and my mechanical engineering degree would be very strange knowledge for a woman to have.
But I could beat Watt to the punch...
The year France lost Quebec.The old Quebec city is very simaler
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