She agreed to take him into her home and employed him as her steward. Through the years that followed Rousseau was educated by Mme De Warens. He made a conversion from illiterate and unlearned to a scholar, writer, musician, and philosopher. Rousseau and Mme De Warens grew closer and eventually became lovers. Her suave and energetic lifestyle brought out the radical in Rousseau which proved necessary for him to be successful in Paris as a writer. .
At the age of 30 Rousseau moved to Paris where he met up with Denis Diderot who at the time was new in Paris and also seeking fame through writing. The two of them became the center of the group known as the "Philosophes- who were involved in writing and editing of the Encyclopédie which was the project of Diderot. The Philosophes became an epicenter for radical thought and pamphlets in Paris and Rousseau was quite at home. Rousseau became the most original and eloquent in the group and was mounting fame quickly as the freethinker. .
Rousseau was also composing music during this time. His first famous opera Le Devin du Village which means "The Cunning-Man- was performed in 1752 and was a huge success. He received great acclaim from the king and his court and it is possible that Rousseau could have enjoyed an easy life in Versailles but he rejected the worldly and material glory. .
In 1749 Rousseau was walking to see Diderot who was arrested for irreligious writings in a prison at Vincennes when he experienced what he would call an "illumination- . Rousseau experienced "a terrible flash- of realization about society and the condition of man. He then wrote Discours sur les Sciences et les Arts (A Discourse On The Sciences And The Arts) in 1750. It was his first important work which won a prize from the Academy of Dijon. His first discourse was not his most influential piece of work but it laid the groundwork for the rest of his books.