Cattle, the fair!

When Poissy was feeding Paris 200 years ago…

Once upon a time there was the Poissy market, with 3,000 oxen, 1,000 calves, 8,000 sheep a day, and evocative street names - rue de la Triperie, rue aux Moutons, rue du Boeuf couronné, ruelle aux Vaches, rue des Bouveries…
From the fair attested to in the 11th century, to the market transferred in 1867 to the Villette, 200 years ago Poissy became one of the hubs of the cattle trade to supply the butchers of the city of Paris.
It is difficult to imagine today what was this bubbling economic activity for the city, generating the development of shops, pastures, inns to welcome sellers and merchants, but also the creation of the Concours d'animaux gras de Poissy, at the origin of the Concours Général Agricole, organized in Paris from 1854, before taking the name of Salon International de l'Agriculture in 1964!
The exhibition traces this history with ethnographic and architectural testimonies.