In the early summer of 1686, the Siamese Embassy arrived in France at the port of Brest. This was not the first Siamese embassy to set sail for France, but it was the first to actually find its way to its destination -- all the others had foundered, the ambassadors drowned or else savaged by aboriginals. This one, however, led by the high-ranking diplomat Kosa Pan, sailed safely into the harbor and was met with full ceremony. Shortly after arrival, the Siamese were ashore, looking at everything. And taking notes.
The multitude of scribes with a mania for writing everything was a peculiarity all the French sources noted. A local churchman said that "they always have their writing-tablets in their hands and if you ask them four questions, they ask you six." They measured their rooms, they counted the trees in the garden, they devoted a whole page to a description of the ambassador's bed with its four mattresses and bedcover of crimson silk edged with gold.
The baffled hosts could not have known that this was the way things were done back in Ayutthaya, then capital of Siam (now known as Thailand). The Persian ambassador to Siam noted that scribes were everywhere "to record every detail of the king's conversation, no matter how trivial the talk." The close and accurate reporting of this first successful embassy to France was therefore important, leading up to a complete description of Paris, once it was reached, and the full glory of King Louis XIV.