2-995-632 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Paris Wine Market: the Brandy Quarter, Rues de Languedoc and de la Côte d'Or, the Cellars, 1860. Engraving after a sketch by M. Lancelot. 'French wines...are likely to become mere generally consumed in England when the new treaty shall have come more fully into operation...the Entrepot, or Halle aux Vins (Wine Market)...is of vast dimensions, the superficies measuring nearly 150,000 yards...In the interior of this vast inclosure there are five sets of constructions, divided into streets, and called (after the names of the most celebrated wine-growing districts in France) Bordeaux-street, Champagne-street, Burgundy-street, Languedoc-street, and Touraine-street...There are on an average from 400,000 to 500,000 casks of wine and spirit kept...[here], the construction of which...cost the city of Paris 30,000,000f., but brings in a very small return for such an outlay to the municipal treasury...The continual arrival and departure of the long wine-carts; the octroi men carrying on their inquisitorial but necessary operations previous to the exit of the vins; the merchants in and out of their counting-houses; the rolling about of barrels here, there, and everywhere; and, above all, a dominating smell of alcohol, rendered it an exciting scene'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.