Maria Luisa del Prete

Getting around

Train vendors moved between carriages via footboards

Traveling by train was often an adventure, with vendors known as swallows selling goods like perfume and cognac while moving between compartments via exterior footboards.

At the table

Cheap and Fast Street Food

Fried potatoes were a popular and affordable street food, often described as a hunger stopper for workers on the go. Vendors also sold soup, with the seller providing the bowl to customers eating on the street.

What people wore

The decline of the worker's blouse

By the early 1900s, the traditional working man's blouse had largely disappeared in Paris, replaced by disparate outfits of jackets, vests, and trousers worn with caps. Workers often saved their best suits for Sundays and holidays, featuring accessories like bowler hats, cravats, and patent leather shoes.

Music

Instruments of the Paris Bal Musette

In the early 20th century, the cabrette, a small bagpipe, was the signature instrument of Parisian bal musette, but it was gradually joined or replaced by the accordion introduced by Italian immigrants.

Daily life

Compulsory schooling and literacy

By 1900, free and compulsory primary education created a new generation of literate children who often acted as cultural mediators for their illiterate parents and grandparents.