The Working River

For centuries, the Seine was Paris's hardest-working citizen. The Port of Paris was the city's economic engine, with entire communities living from and on the river. The water carriers (porteurs d'eau) hauled river water up to apartments before modern plumbing. Washerwomen (lavandières) created floating laundries on moored barges, their songs and gossip as much a part of the river's sound as the lapping waves.

The river ports specialized by trade: Port de la Râpée for wine, Port Saint-Bernard for wood, Port de la Conférence for stone and construction materials. Each port had its own culture, its own traditions, even its own dialect. The port workers, many of them migrants from other regions of France or from the colonies, formed tight-knit communities that persisted for generations.

Marie-Claire Leblanc, now 89, remembers her father working as a déchargeur (unloader) at the Port de Bercy in the 1940s: "He'd leave before dawn and come home after dark, smelling of wine and river water. The men would unload barrels from barges that had come all the way from Burgundy. It was backbreaking work, but there was pride in it. They were feeding Paris."