bunnyinatree reblogged
YAY I love the chapter of Les Mis where Fantine rides a roller coaster!
About three o’clock the four couples, frightened at their happiness, were sliding down the Russian mountains, a singular edifice which then occupied the heights of Beaujon, and whose undulating line was visible above the trees of the Champs-Élysées.
The “Russian Mountains” were an early version of roller coasters. They were (obviously) invented in Russia, and then became a Thing in France when Russia occupied the country after helping defeat Napoleon in the battle of Waterloo, which resulted in a lot of cultural exchange.
Obviously at this point roller coaster technology was in its infancy (they were basically just carts that rolled down a track.)
Here’s a longer post with more detail on the coasters!
But yeah, I wish adaptations would just let Fantine zoom around on her little roller coaster for a bit. She goes through so much later on that she deserves that. Let her have this one thing.
