Roadmender
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Le Cantonnier | The Road-Mender
The road-mender ("Le Cantonnier", 19th-century chalk drawing by J. F. Millet, Musée des Berthalais, http://www.musee-des-berthalais.fr).
The cantonnier, a road-mender or road-man, was responsible for the maintenance of dirt and gravel roads.
The road-mender carried his tools in a wheelbarrow, which he parked at the edge of the embankment as long as his repair work lasted. He would spread gravel into the potholes (called “nids de poules” in French, or birds’ nests) and cleaned the ditches in anticipation of the rainy season. The gravel and stones were provided by the peasants, as part of the corvée (a day's unpaid labor owed by a tenant to his seigneur). Once the holes were filled up, the road-mender would smooth over the surface by rolling an oat cylinder over it with the help of a horse provided by a compliant peasant. Small cabins built on the shoulder of the road provided the workers with shelter from the weather and, when the day ended, a place to store their tools.
Eventually, the manual nature of the road-mender’s work eased a little, as more and more horse-drawn drags were used to spread and level gravel.
Sources:
“Le travail au quotidien du cantonnier”, Histoire en questions blog, www.histoire-en-questions.fr.
Claude Lemay, "Fonctions et métiers délaissés", l'Ancêtre, number 281, volume 34, winter 2008, and number 280, volume 34, winter 2007; electronic edition, Société généalogique de Québec (www.sgq.qc.ca/images/_SGQ/R_LAncetre_plus_libre/ENT-FONCTIONS-METIERS-DELAISSES.pdf).