Salt has found its way into poetry collections such as Étier by Eugène Guillevic (1907-1997) and Le Sel noir by Edouard Glissant (1928-2011), not to mention Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) in which the poem “Hymne” begins:
A la très chère, à la très belle
Qui remplit mon cœur de clarté,
A l’ange, à l’idole immortelle,
Salut en l’immortalité !
Elle se répand dans ma vie
Comme un air imprégné de sel,
Et dans mon âme inassouvie
Verse le goût de l’éternel.
To explore salt from a variety of angles, the Henri Peyre French Institute invites you to enjoy three slideshows that are part of its seminar Food, Power, Exchange, and Identity: Food and Foodstuffs in the French and Francophone Worlds:
● Salt in Relation to Food Advertising: France from the Late 19th Century to the Early 20th Century
● The Sardine Industry in France up to the Early 20th century
From Moses appearing on a 16th-century saltcellar to the seemingly endless work done by sardine factory workers in Brittany of the 19th and early 20th centuries, from Tristan and Iseult playing chess aboard the famous Burghley Nef to artfully drawn posters advertising salt-related food products, any number of reflections can come to mind as you travel through these slideshows (prepared by Anna Soo-Hoo).