When the French explorer Nicholas Baudin arrived in Sydney Harbour in 1802 with his fleet, he was seeking urgent supplies to help with scurvy and to replenish some items they were running short of.
The Colony was only 14 years old at that stage and what he saw astounded him. A well designed town and good farms and all from the labour of convicts.
Francois Péron, the French expedition's chief zoologist, wrote a detailed 160 page report for Napoleon on how and why they should invade Australia and remove the British presence.
Apparently this document, which is currently being translated and will be published online soon, is full of anglophilia and anglophobia and quite amusing to read.
Napoleon was all for the invasion but found himself busy for the next decade.
Lucky for us! I hated learning French at High School and croissants give me heartburn.
