Rousseau arrived in Paris during the summer of 1742.

He first worked as a secretary to the new French ambassador in Venice. He fought a lot with the ambassador making his stay in Venice very short. He naively believed that the ambassador would be blamed. Since then, Rousseau was convinced that there was no reason to expect any kind of justice from a social order.

Later, he returned to Paris and met Therese Levasseur whom he married and had children with (though he did abandon them just like his dad did).

In 1749, the Academy of Dijon announced an essay contest to which Rousseau won first place. This led to the writing and publishing of the Discours sur les Arts et les Sciences.

In 1751, Rousseau's music composition Le Devin du Village was played in front of Louis XV. He described this moment as “added the finishing touch to my popularity, and I became the most sought-after man in Paris”