page_title: Paris during the Bourbon Restoration
section_title: Bread, meat and wine
hierarchical_section_title: Paris during the Bourbon Restoration / Daily Life / Bread, meat and wine
context_page_description: During the Restoration of the Bourbon monarchy that followed the downfall of Napoleon, Paris was ruled by a royal government which tried to reverse many of the changes made to the city during the French Revolution. The city grew in population from 713,966 in 1817 to 785,866 in 1831. During the period Parisians saw the first public transport system, the first gas street lights, and the first uniformed Paris policemen. In July 1830, a popular uprising in the streets of Paris brought down the Bourbon monarchy and began reign of a constitutional monarch, Louis-Philippe.
context_section_description: According to the 19th century French historian and academician  Maxime du Camp, the "primordial elements" of the Paris diet were bread, meat, and wine.  Maintaining a steady bread supply for the Parisians was a major preoccupation of the French government during the Restoration;  no one had forgotten the consequences of a bread shortage during the Revolution.  Bakers were the most strictly regulated of all Paris businessmen; they had to show the police that they had lived a correct and moral life, and to pass a long apprenticeship.  They were required to always have bread available, with a three-month reserve of flour; to give notice if they were going to be on vacation, or six months in advance if they intended to close.  They were also forbidden to sell bread outside their shop.  The price of bread was strictly regulated by the Prefect of Police;  as of 1823, a special commission met every fifteen days to set the price.  Because the price was fixed artificially low, bakers could not make a living selling bread alone;  the designed a wide variety of fantasy breads"  and pastries, from which they earned most of their income.
  The wheat for Paris bread was usually grown in the regions of Beauce, Brie and Picardy.  They had slightly different tastes and characteristics, and were usually blended by the bakers.  The grain was milled outside of Paris and brought to the Halle au Blé, or Wheat Hall, built by Napoleon in December 1811 (The building is now the Paris Chamber of Commerce).   The bakers came to the Hall to buy it, then worked, often all night long, to bake it.  The baguette had not yet been invented;  the standard loaf was crusty outside and white inside:  Parisians, even in times of bread shortages, refused to eat dark bread.
  Meat was the second base of the diet Parisians consumed an average of sixty kilos of meat a year.  The wealthy and middle-class Parisians consumed the better cuts of beef, lamb and veal;  poorer Parisians ate mutton, pork  and the less-expensive cuts of beef, brains, and tripe,  either in soups like bouillon or in sausages and other charcuterie.  Until the Restoration the animals were usually brought to the butcher shops and slaughtered in the courtyard;  the sound was terrible and the streets outside ran with blood.  Napoleon ordered the construction of five slaughterhouses, or abbatoires, three on the right bank and two on the left, around the edges of the city.  They were constructed between 1810 and 1818 at Montmartre, Menilmontant, Roule, Grenelle, and Villejuif.
  Wine was the third essential part of the Parisian diet.  The daily alcohol consumption of the Paris working class was high;  in times of economic difficulty, the consumption of other food products decreased, but the consumption of wine increased; it was consumed to relieve stress and to forget difficulties.  Low-quality and inexpensive wines were made a vineyards just outside the city.   The best quality wines were brought by wine merchants from the chateaux of Burgundy and Bordeaux.   By far the largest quantity of wine arrived by boat at the Halle aux Vins, which was located on the quai des Bernardins between rue Cuvier and Place Maubert, next to the Jardin des Plantes. The Halle aux Vins had been started in 1808 and finished in 1818;  it occupied fourteen hectares, and had 159 wine cellars at street level and another forty-nine caves. All bulk wine, spirits, oils and vinegars were required to pass through the Halle, where the alcohol level was measured and taxes were collected;  wine and spirits with more than eighteen percent alcohol paid a higher tax.
  The wine was delivered in large barrels from vineyards in Beaujolais, Cahors, Burgundy, and the Touraine;  they could be told apart because each region had a different size and shape of barrel.  The wines were frequently mixed to make an ordinary table wine.  These were the wines commonly served in homes, the taverns and less-expensive eating places of Paris.  In 1818 the Halle took in and taxed 752,795 hectoliters of wine, or about one hundred liters per year for every resident
caption: The Halle du Blé, the central grain market of Paris (now the Chamber of Commerce)
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