3-021-641 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Paris Halles Centrales at daybreak, 1869. 'The first instalments of the daily food supply of the French capital are brought by the carts of the market gardeners...the glazed pavilions have been opened; on the pavement outside the transactions have become most active; the private buyers begin to arrive; sub-officers, accompanied by soldiers bearing large sacks, wander round heaps of vegetables, and make their choice for the daily rations...The Halles Centrales are of enormous extent, and yet they are insufficient to hold all the dealers who should find room there. Certain markets overflow and force the dealers to occupy the neighbouring streets, where women, crouched on the pavement, even in the middle of the footway, sell kitchen herbs during the morning. These herbalists are looked after in a special manner, for they have to be prevented from hiding behind bunches of sage and rosemary prohibited herbs, dear to sorceresses in their most guilty witchcrafts, such as rue, wormwood, and savin. The Rue des Halles is invaded by waggon-loads of peas, broad beans, and haricot-beans, which are piled up in rain or sunshine...The cooks, with bare arms and carrying baskets, arrive to buy the day's supplies'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.