The art is solid, but that's unsurprising from a real star of shojo. The backgrounds and the fashion are the real highlight here. While the characters aren't especially interesting to look at (partially because of Ikeda's role in defining the shojo style), her backgrounds are rich in detail and depict a more modern France than VERSAILLES.
The romances aren't especially interesting in themselves, as mentioned previously. They suffer from "serialized syndrome" where they have some out-of-nowhere endings that don't really clearly advance the story just to wrap things up within the page count for the month.
Claudine is an interesting subject for a manga, but it would really work better if it stuck with one idea for more than a chapter.
