What heat! It's hot, very hot! How thirsty I am! You arrive at your destination and long for the pleasure of refreshing yourself with a tall glass of ice-cold drink. Quick! Flip! Flop! Two ice cubes straight from the freezer slide into your glass. It's simple and easy. You sip it, happy, finally quenched!

But… how did people “before?” in the past, how did they drink or eat iced food when they didn’t know how to make artificial cold at home?

Our ancestors relied on nature, and winter frost was their ally. It was the only natural way to guarantee the freshness of food. Yes, but how did they cultivate, preserve, transport, and distribute this ice?

In the 19th century, the ice trade developed into a veritable industry from the production of ice, formed on the surface of any frozen body of water (lakes, ponds, rivers), cut into blocks, stored in icehouses and sold to individuals and merchants. Distribution to customers near and far was done by cart, wagon, train and even boat all over the world.

In 1882, the Marseille industrialist, Henri Gignoux, was authorized to draw water from the Petit Buëch river to supply his 10 hectares of ponds. Taking advantage of the region's harsh winters, he built the first icehouse at La Roche-des-Arnauds. Other industrialists followed suit with varying degrees of success. As a result, four ice-processing buildings were constructed in the town, stimulating the local economy, which typically stagnates during the winter.

This industry flourished thanks to a hundred seasonal workers from La-Roche-des-Arnauds and the surrounding villages who were employed for periods of 10 to 15 days from December to March for cutting and storage or from June to September for shipping or deliveries.

From a drop of water… to a block of ice! How were icehouses used?

River water, brought in by a canal, flowed into the artificial lake at a constant depth of 0,50m to 1,50m (and even 3,50m for Henri Gignoux's icehouse). Gradually, the water turned to ice, and it took about twenty days for the ice to reach a sufficient thickness of 22cm. Depending on the weather and snowfall, large scrapers, known as "rabasses," were used. These scrapers, ranging in size from 50cm to 2,50m, were pushed either by one or two men or by horses. They compacted the snow until the desired thickness was achieved.

The harvest.

Using a special plow, long furrows spaced 80 cm apart were plowed along the entire length of the lake. These strips were then cut into 4-meter sections with ice saws. Next, working together in perfect unison, the "pike-cutters" struck the furrows with their picks to cut blocks measuring 4 meters by 0,80 meters. The "net-cutters," using their "arpic" (a type of pick), then brought these blocks to the bottom of the storage building where a worker divided them into loaves approximately 1 meter long.

Storage.

These blocks of ice, stored in reserve, were pushed by workers on either side of the access ramp. They were later replaced by horses and, in 1929, by electric motors.

Inside the icehouse, the walls were insulated with planks, a layer of sawdust, and 15 cm of straw, allowing the ice to be preserved for up to a year. When loading the icehouse, the bottom ramp received the first layer of blocks, and then, ramp by ramp, the layers were stacked to fill the entire icehouse to a height of about 10 meters. Some harsh winters allowed for two harvests, thus building up stocks in anticipation of a milder, ice-free winter.

How was the ice transported?

At the beginning of the operation of the icehouses, flat carts, loaded with 4 m3, were pulled by horses to transport the ice to the Montmaur station.

The construction of the La Roche-des-Arnauds station in 1885 facilitated shipments to Gap, but also, and above all, to all the stations in the Southeast, those in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône, Drôme, Isère, Var, and Vaucluse departments. Blocks of ice, insulated from the air by thick layers of horsehair and separated by sheets of paper, were placed on the wagon platforms, ready for delivery.

Problems related to the trade in natural ice.

The trade in natural ice has encountered several difficulties:

-The heat: we sometimes lost half of the cargo on a 200km journey when summer temperatures soared.

-Tax duties:

At that time, to bring goods into a city, one had to pay the octroi, which was a tax. Ice, being considered a luxury item, had a very high import duty in the cities of the southeast. Its price could double!

-Competition from an increasing number of other operators.

-And, above all, technical progress through the arrival of "electric refrigeration" and refrigerated transport (wagons and trucks).

Despite growing awareness and appeals from industrialists to elected officials to lower taxes and continue providing work for mountain dwellers in winter, the icehouses began closing one after another as early as 1914. The last two ceased operations, one in 1923 and the other in 1939. This last one, still half full, was requisitioned to become a military depot, and all the remaining blocks of ice were dumped into the lake.

Ice was no longer harvested after the Second World War. It was a different era, one of electricity and modern refrigerated transport. The ice-making industry, which had been the lifeblood of the small village of La Roche des Arnauds, disappeared completely.

You'll definitely think about it while you're quenching your thirst… You'll never look at your ice cubes the same way again…