The tide-chasing

Fresh sea-food was available  along the coast but had to be salted or smoked for distribution to distant inland cities.

During the early Middle Ages religious obligations such as meatless days and Lent increased the demand for fish. Means of rapid transport were set up to provide fresh fish to towns and cities, Rouen, Paris and Beauvais for example. However, this transport suffered from the greedily abusive tolls imposed by lords, abbeys and officers and also from bandits who ransomed and pillaged the fishmongers. In 1351 king Jean-Paul le Bon took measures to protect them and thus to guarantee an abundance of fresh fish in Paris. To shorten the delivery time, tide-chasers took priority in ports to buy their fish and a central market was set up in Les Halles in Paris. However, the real restricting factor was the state of the roads, which for centuries was  very bad. 

The tide-chasers adapted their itineraries to the weather, as the roads were impossible if it rained. In the 18th century roads were improved with paving stones but these were dangerous for the fish carts because, at high speed, the horses slipped on them. It was only at the beginning of the 19th century, when  roads  were covered with stone, thanks to MacAdam, that greater speeds were achieved.

As soon as it arrived in port the fish was unloaded into standardised wicker baskets that could only contain fish of one type and from the same haul. The baskets were loaded onto the carts and covered with a tarpaulin to maintain freshness. The carts were two-wheeled and had been altered to be lighter and to better absorb shock during the journey. The bottoms of these carts were not made of wooden planks but of interwoven ropes and the slatted side-panels were made of wicker. The team of horses was made up of four or six that were changed every seven leagues in relay posts; this meant that a fishmonger with six horses per team had to own a total of 30 horses to cover the distance of 35 leagues between Dieppe and Paris. The horse at the team’s head wore a bell that signalled the arrival of the cart in Paris. In the 19th century a tide-chaser who left Dieppe in the evening arrived in Paris early the next morning.

The Dieppe-Rouen-Paris tide-chaser route passed  through Ormesnil. It went through Clères, St Georges sur Fontaine, St André, and Pierreval, where there was a relay post. Here, from the top of a tower, a scout heralded by horn the arrival of the team so that the relay horses could be prepared. Afterwards, they went through Ry, Neuf-Marché, Gervais and Gisors before arriving in Paris. 

When, at last, the improvement of roads allowed horse-drawn vehicles to go much more quickly, the railways had  arrived and in 1848, when railway lines were laid, the tide-chasers disappeared.