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Nos Cochers de Fiacre no. 1

Source:
postcards.delcampe.fr (Item no. 14223009). Click here to view source.

Les Femmes Cocher / 144

A Cocher Miscellany / 11

Picture (left): Waiting for a bourgeois.

Paris cab drivers and other working class people often addressed their middle class (male) customers as "Bourgeois". The word means "citizen" but "burgher" is probably closer, implying a superior kind of citizen with claims to power and privilege. The word automatically drew attention to the class difference between cab rider and cab driver.

"Bourgeois" could be humorously deferential, as when a London cabbie addressed his fare as "Squire" or "Governor", but given their notorious independence "Bourgeois" in a Paris cabbie's mouth had a strong undertone of irony. The unspoken subtext was, "You may think you're above me but I'm not your lackey."