Chasse-marée (cart)

A chasse-marée is a cart from medieval France designed to carry baskets of fresh fish to inland markets, with a minimal structure and harnessing for four or more horses.

The medieval French chasse-marée merchants originally catered to the demand for fresh fish in inland markets by carrying fish in pairs of baskets on pack ponies, as far as possible, overnight. However, the distances they could reach before the fish deteriorated was limited.

Later, where the quality of the road permitted, the range was extended by the use of charrettes (carts). When designed for this trade, with a minimum of weight put into their construction and provision for harnessing four horses, these vehicles took the name of chasse-marée. As speed was essential, they were normally hauled by two pairs of horses rather than the single horse which is normal for a cart. The vehicle took the form of two wheels, of a diameter large enough to minimize the slowing effect of bumps in the road. On their axle was mounted an open rectangular frame within which were slung the baskets holding the fish, packed in seaweed. More baskets were stacked above.[1] The teams of usually fairly small horses were worked hard and changed at posting stations in the same way as those of mail coaches.[2]

The coast supplying Paris by road was originally, that which was nearest to its market, around Le Tréport and Saint-Valery-sur-Somme. At its most developed, it extended from Fécamp to Calais including such places as Dieppe, Boulogne-sur-Mer and Étaples.

After 600 years in operation, the railroads put it out of business in the mid-1800s.[3] The Route du Poisson horse driving endurance race recreated the 24-hour dash from seashore to Paris, though as a multiple-day relay race. It ran every few years from 1991 to 2012, and revived in 2022.[3][4][5]

See also

References

  1. ^ The picture at bottom left on this web page shows some waiting for the marée Archived November 25, 2006, at the Wayback Machine at a Norman fish quay in the early twentieth century. The top picture here shows one if full flight Archived November 24, 2006, at the Wayback Machine when it could sustain 15 kilometres per hour from one posting station to the next.
  2. ^ "Encyclopédie Marikavel. Genèse de la Bretagne armoricaine. Chapitre V : voies de communication des côtes de la Manche à Paris" [Land communications routes between the Channel coast and Lutecia / Paris]. marikavel.com (in French). Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Compare the routes for mail coaches and chasse-marées in the bottom two sections of this web page.
  3. ^ a b Harris, Gill (10 March 2022). "Giddy up for La Route du Poisson". Taste of France magazine.
  4. ^ "Prenez un cheval de Trait, ou plutôt 320 chevaux de Trait !" [Take a draft horse, or rather 320 draft horses!]. R&B Presse (in French). 9 February 2008. Archived from the original on 9 February 2008.
  5. ^ "La Route du Poisson" [The Fish Route]. La Bredaine Equestrian Farm (in French). 31 December 2022.
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