3-039-040 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Revictualling of Paris: first arrival of fish at the Halles, 1871. Franco-Prussian War. 'The arrival of the first cartloads of fresh fish from the sea-coast, on Friday, the 3rd February, at half-past three in the afternoon, excited great delight at the Halles Centrales of Paris. Nothing of that sort had been seen there since last September. Three carts, one of which bore the name of Tréport, the seaport on the Channel coast, near Dieppe, from which this welcome supply had been sent, contained a number of rush-woven baskets, packed with straw, in which lay the much-desired commodity, so long withheld from Parisian dinner-tables, like other kinds of wholesome meat, by the rigorous operations of war. The carts were escorted by a few National Guards, but the people, enthusiastically rejoiced as they were, and eager to see the contents, behaved in an orderly manner. This had not been the case with the first loads of green vegetables from the neighbouring market-gardens, the arrival of which almost caused a riot and some attempts to snatch them by force'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.