Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

After the banquet, in a brief moment before the ball began, Rahman and a group of tribal leaders signaled servants to move boxes of gifts into the Crown Prince's reception room.

Joseph looked at the room filled with dazzling treasures and smiled at Rahman, "Thank you very much for your thoughtful gifts, Count Busada."

Indeed, just this afternoon, Louis XVI was extremely pleased by Rahman's smooth talking, and after consulting his son's opinion, he bestowed a noble title upon him.

Rahman had contributed significantly to the integration of Algiers, and he deserved a reward. This also served as an example for other Berber Nobles—serve the King well, and the benefits will certainly follow.

Rahman bowed respectfully, "For you to accept these humble offerings is our greatest honor, Your Royal Highness."

He paused and continued, "In fact, I have another special gift for you."

"Oh? And what might that be?"

Rahman gestured to the tribal leaders behind him, "You see, when they departed from Mitija Port, they had never learned French."

Joseph was surprised. He had heard these Berber Nobles speaking French at the banquet earlier. Though their accent was strange and the grammar somewhat clumsy, they could speak at length in the language.

To think, the journey from Algiers to Paris takes just half a month, and these semi-literate tribal leaders had managed to memorize so many sentences.

"How did you manage it?"

Rahman did not answer directly, "Your Highness, I believe that for the Governor's Palace to efficiently manage Algiers and to promote rapid development across regions, it is essential to teach people French swiftly."

Joseph jokingly observed this newly-appointed Count Busada, thinking how you are truly a model in the realm of 'French mastery.'

Promoting the French language was indeed a concern for him. In both Savoy and the Rheinland area, language posed a significant problem, let alone in North Africa.

He understood clearly that for these places to truly integrate into France, a unified language was absolutely crucial.

Joseph nodded immediately, "I would be very interested in hearing your suggestions."

"To be honest, French is indeed quite challenging," Rahman said, "I mean no offense; it's beautiful but also difficult to master.

"It took me four whole years to finally stop making grammatical errors.

"Later, when I taught my nephew French, you know, the boy was so dull that he could never get the hang of articles and adjective declensions."

Joseph nodded internally. French nouns are gendered—tables are masculine, doors are feminine, leading to numerous changes in articles and adjectives in agreement with the noun's gender.

Adding plural forms to the mix certainly demanded a lot of mental effort to memorize.

Rahman continued, "I was left with no choice but to tell him to ignore the gender of nouns. Well, even ignoring plural forms, at first he just needed to roughly convey sentences.

"This way, he learned much faster.

"However, this boy learned to slack off because of this. He ignored all tenses except for the present, past perfect, and simple future. When unable to express certain sentences, he used make-shift methods instead.

"For example, he used the past perfect with a time adverb to express the imperfect past. He used the past perfect with a time adverb and another past perfect to express the pluperfect.

"In this manner, after merely four months of study, he was able to conduct simple conversations. Although his grammar was all over the place, I could roughly understand his meaning."

——————

There's still some yet to be coded, please come back 40 minutes later to refresh and view. Very sorry.

The famous garden landscapes of Sanssouci Palace began with Frederick the Great's decision to establish terraces of vineyards on the southern slopes of Bornstedt. Before this, it was merely a small hill planted with oak trees. During the time of Sergeant King Frederick William I, the trees here were cut down for the construction of Potsdam city and to reinforce muddy marshlands. Sanssouci Palace Diagram (3) On August 10, 1744, Frederick the Great ordered that this then 'deserted hill' be developed into vineyard terraces. The slope was planned into six wide terraced levels. To maximize the use of solar rays, walls were built in a slightly arched shape around the steps as the center. The surfaces of the load-bearing walls were replaced with single grapevines from Portugal, Italy, and France. Behind 168 glass domes, fig trees were planted. The frontal ends of the terraces were covered with green lawns, planted with yews and shrubs to divide them. A central axis of 120 steps (actually 132 steps) was built, dividing the terraced vineyard into six sections. Ramps were constructed on both sides of the hill.

In 1745, a Baroque-styled ornamental garden was built on the flatland below the hill. Starting from 1748, a pond with a fountain was added at the garden's center. However, regrettably, Frederick the Great was never able to see the fountain spray water because during his time there wasn't adequate technology to make it work. From 1750, marble statues of Roman mythological figures were placed around the pond—Venus, Mercury, Apollo, Diana, Juno the goddess of fertility and marriage, Jupiter the king of gods, Mars the god of war, and Minerva the goddess of wisdom, along with the metaphoric four elements: fire, water, wind, and earth. Among those, the statues of Venus and Mercury were sculpted by Jean Baptiste Pigalle, and two hunting groups. The statues of Wind and Water were by Lambert Sigisbert Adam. They were gifts from King Louis XV of France. The other statues came from the studio of Francois Gaspard Adam, a French sculpture workshop personally established by Frederick the Great in Berlin. This complete French circular parterre square only remained intact until 1764. The Sanssouci Palace constructed on this vineyard, once again undoubtedly displayed the harmony of blending man and nature. As early as the 13th century cultivation of vineyards in the Mark Brandenburg area was common and had never been used as decorative gardens by the Royalty. However, at Sanssouci, these ordinary grapevines became the central ornament of the vineyard terraces. Coupled with the small but exquisite palace on top of the hill, it reached an even higher level of perfection. In Frederick the Great's words, it was my little house on the vineyard hill. For Sanssouci Palace, the most beautiful season of the year is summer. Whenever this King of Prussia stood on the vineyard hill, he could take in the picturesque scenery all at once. And behind him was the Palace of Sanssouci where he could freely enjoy and exert his individual talents and hobbies. The windmill on the hillside of Sanssouci Palace had stood there since 1736, becoming a symbol of pastoral charm of the time. Frederick the Great once said, that windmill adorns my palace.