Les Mis/sewers
Today was some light lunchtime reading about the history of the Paris sewers. 😱
They're particularly awful until a dangerous multi-year exploration starts in 1806. Slightly improved by 1832, much better by 1862.
And I kid you not, Hugo insists that Paris has the best *sewage*. While complaining about how we flush all that fertilizer out to sea, he actually describes "Parisian guano" as "the richest of all."