House landaise

There does not exist a single model of house landaise . The current “house landaise”, such as it is sometimes presented in the estate agencies, takes as a starting point the oustaù , habitat traditional of the Landes of Gascogne.

Presentation

The traditional oustaù was a house with Colombage provided with a roof with three sides in “tail of Palombe” ( coded paloma ). It was entirely built by the carpenter who, for the longest beams, used the wood of the oaks stalks of the forest. The walls were only filling of Torchis, mixture of straw and of clay, held by will esparrons and did not contribute to the solidity of construction. As from the 19th century, cob was replaced in certain sectors by bricks punts.

The oustaù was generally directed in the east, turning the back on the bad weather:

the main entrance and the hood (called emban or Estandat ), when there exists, presented east coast. One avoided directing his frontage southern part, on the one hand to have the sun of the morning, but also to protect from estival strong heats
the back side, directed in the west, was exposed to the bad weather coming from the ocean. It generally presented neither carries nor window, at best of the reduced openings. The back side of the roof went down very low to protect the habitat from the wind and the rain. Around the Basin of Arcachon, this wall plugs was tarred, while in the Pays of Born, the houses had the effect of having four sides.

Organization

The houses with hood were located mainly in High Moor and in Albret landais. One there carried out menus work, received the visitors or one rested there the evenings of summer… Sign prosperity, it was the prerogative of the houses of Master. When the latter, nouveau riches thanks to the forestry development, left the Airial at the XIXe century for houses more cossues in the boroughs, these houses passed to their former sharecroppers. Before that, the house of the Sharecropper S, of more modest aspect, were generally built perpendicular to that of the Master, on the side of the frontage. This orientation answered two criteria:

the Master could thus supervise his sharecroppers
the house of the sharecropper could not, by respect of the social order, face or turn the back on that of its Master. It was thus necessary that it is perpendicular for him, being thus less better protected from the bad weather

The oustaù , rustic habitat, was accompanied by appendices: wine storehouse, cattle sheds, barns, necessary to a rural lifestyle sometimes near to autarky. To six or seven, these houses which one did from generation to generation formed, with their appendices, these districts disseminated around the airial. The oustaù was built around the room, central part equipped with a chimney, with the back of which the wooden tube was located. The room was used sometimes as kitchen, it was also the most furnished part: long table and benches for the meals, few chairs, a cupboard or a cabinet, a dresser. The neighbors did not reach the rooms, distributed on both sides a room, that to help with a childbirth or to take care a patient or a death.

The oustaù sheltered several generations: the aïeux ones, wire and their wives, small children and not yet married girls, before they will join the hearth of their engaged couple. In the houses of sharecroppers two families could cohabit. The presence near a umbrella pine was generally regarded as the sign of the property, that of a fig tree or a treillised vineyard in frontage, of hospitality.

Sources

Dictionary of the French Moor, Charles Daney, Editions Loubatières

See too

External bond

the house landaise on Gasconha.com

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