Blanchisseuses Parade In Paris

Some women in orange wigs and other various disguises, reviving the  Blanchisseuses parade of old  Paris, started dancing to the beat of the drums, getting ready to march.

This was not a wild event to go to in Paris, as it was many years ago, but it nevertheless  was something I wanted to see that was a significant historical part of Paris past.

Blanchisseuses or lavandieres were wash women, whose job was to wash and iron clothes for families who hired them to do so.

I wanted to write about these colourful women of past and their history, as they were an integral part of everyday Paris.

Their parade at the middle of Lent was their only day to rise and shine above their everyday misery and possibly to be a Queen of the day!

You see, their lot was at the bottom of the social ladder or even below.  For the most part, they were often “invisible”, blending in the crowded cacophony of Parisian life.

Their extremely difficult job was washing clothes all day in all sorts of weather,  come rain , snow or shine.

In 1880, there were still about 94,000 wash women in Paris and of course “repasseuses” or ironers.

The work took a toll on their bodies and they often died young, bent with rheumatic limbs, ruined joints and of course scaly rough red hands.

In addition to the above, then were prone to catch skin lesions, infectious diseases or tuberculosis from contaminated linen handled without precaution.

Many had to drink to get through their long 14 hour days.  They were a crude and rough bunch of women, who were notoriously loud and tough to deal with, not because they wanted to be, but because they had to survive.

They lived and died in poverty, often falling sick due to their work. Before indoor plumbing, they washed, scrubbed and wrung heavy loads of laundry on the bank of river Seine.

The last washing boat in Paris disappeared only during WWII.  In the rural communes, communal wash basins and wash boats did not cease till later.

If you visit villages in France, you will often see the public “lavoirs” along the banks of rivers or streams.

When running water was available, they moved inside to dark, dank rooms, often below street level where they plied their trade.

There are no longer any “professional” wash women in Paris, having long disappeared with the advent of washing machines.

The parade that I went to yesterday was to not only honor them but all women who remain in menial jobs poorly paid and with little compensation or appreciation.

I thought I would share their history with you from the annals of old Paris.  They were as essential as the street lighters to keeping the city running.

Bourgeoise families employed their own wash women,amongst domestics and cooks and so it was mostly the middle classes that used the services of the wash women.

Poor families made do with the sole homemaker who had to do washing and everything else.

Wash women would contract with several families to fetch, wash and deliver their laundry.  They used wheelbarrows to do the fetching and delivery.

They rented little spaces in the wash boat where they dipped dirty laundry in huge barrels, soaping them and beating them with paddles and brushing out stains. Rinsing was done in the  flowing waters of the river.

If laundry needed to be bleached, it was put underneath a layer of wood ashes.  Boiling water would be repetitively poured through the ashes creating potassium hydroxide that seep down and bleached the laundry.

It was up to the wash women muscled arms to wring out sheets using torsion to get them ready for hanging.

For upper class families, laundry could be scented using roots of iris or lavender. On the boats, there were racks for dying on the upper levels or along the banks.

In the deepest of winter, when the river edges froze, they did not work, but snow, sleet and rain never kept them away.

After all there was not any sick pay or vacations, but they could do their own personal laundry  for free.

The first mid carnival parades began around 1659 in Paris and spread to smaller cities and rural areas.  Whether it was an extension of Mardi Gras or a reminder that the Lenten season was half way finished, I do not know. 

An article published in Le Figaro in 1891 reported that year’s parade had 40 floats representing some 40 “lavoirs” with multiple marching bands playing drums clarinets and trumpets.

These mid carnival parade were huge and crowds flocked to the streets to cheer on the blanchisseuses.

Each washing boat or street lavoir elected their respective Queen for the event.  There were over 94,000 wash women and 11,000 was men involved in the trade, working 12 to 15 hours a day for very little money.

In 1871, there were 120 laundries and 80 washing boats of the Seine and Canal Saint Martin.

By 1930, due to various disputes amongst who shall carry on the tradition of the parade as wash women, who were being replaced with other laborers, and students, it finally disappeared.

It was revived in 2008 and hopefully will continue to grow, but I doubt it will ever resume its huge proportions or significance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now also called the Carnival of Women, with men invited to participate, this year’s parade was small.

Perhaps it will take many more years before it can be rebuilt into the Parisian mindset.

To me, it calls to remind us that we have to make our own parade now and then and celebrate and valorize our own lot in life, whatever we may be.

Life has enough miserable down times for all of us, obviously for some more than others. Looking to celebrate what  blessings you do have teaches us to focus on our glass half full, rather than half empty.

Don’t wait for someone else to throw you a party. Celebrate what you want, when you want, how you want and with whom you want!