Lavoirs - Washhouses of Rural France

No building better embodies the ineffable qualities of rural France than the lavoir, the communal washhouse that, until a few decades ago, was the central gathering place for women in many small villages across the French countryside as much a part of communal life as the market. These open-air laundry rooms first appeared for the private use of the social elite in the seventeenth century but flourished as public spaces after the Revolution.