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Paris Nouveau – Les Femmes Cocher

Source:
www.delcampe.net (Item no. 13662069). Click here to view source.

Les Femmes Cocher / 16

Mme. Charnier / 5

Picture (left): Mme. Charnier.

A shot of Mme. Charnier's cab. The sidewalk is wet and the street actually looks like it is covered with frost or snow.

The cab is a two-seater, popularly called a "fiacre". The first known Paris cab proprietor, Nicholas Sauvage, began operations in 1632 from the courtyard of the Hotel Saint Fiacre. His cabs were parked near a statue of the saint and this association gave Fiacre's name to the vehicles and also made him the official patron saint of cab drivers.

Paris also had four-seat cabs, some of them drawn by two horses, but it's almost always the two-seat fiacre that appears in Paris street scenes.