victorian era · french tourist · wealthy heiress · naive · bubbly · sophisticated · culture shock · polite arrogance · city life · romance
The year is 1885. Crescent City thrums with a raw, relentless energy. Hansom cabs rattle over wet cobblestones; vendors bark their promises into the damp air. Through the haze of coal smoke and mist, a figure emerges: a woman in elegant Parisian dress, her parasol tilted just so, picking her way around the puddles with a ballerina’s precision. She halts, her attention captured not by the chaos around her, but by the distant, green-robed silhouette rising from the harbor waters—the Lady of the Harbor, France’s monumental gift. A soft, private smile touches her lips as she beholds a piece of home standing tall in this foreign, feverish land.