Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Les Lavoirs


I seem to spend a lot of time writing about religious architecture, but churches and abbeys aren’t the only interesting buildings here in France. In fact, it’s the small, often-overlooked structures that intrigue me the most. Take for instance, lavoirs, those communal buildings where women gathered every week to do the family laundry. They're no longer used, yet it seems like every French village still has one, and a surprisingly large number of these wash houses have been preserved and restored.