The Beauty's in the Details

Houses in Brittany - part 5 - Details

Thank you so much for all your nice comments on this series about houses in Brittany. I love sharing with you houses from where I live.

Due to health problems that hopefully won't be too serious, I'm really tired. Basically I get up, make my way down the stairs and I'm already exhausted... But that's not the worse thing! Tea is forbidden for now! Be warned, I could kill for a nice cuppa!

I'm pretty sure a few pictures of houses will take my mind of all that.

Merci pour vos gentils commentaires sur cette série sur les maisons bretonnes. Je pensais que l'on pouvait clore la série par une revue de détails.

For that last part, I thought I would show a few typical details about houses in Brittany that you might know of or (and I would love that!) that you're going to learn about!

Many houses have a little niche on their façade: people would display a statue of a saint in it.

Sometimes only the niche is left and there's nothing anymore in it. Can you see that one?

Beaucoup de maisons avaient en façade une niche dans laquelle se trouvait la statue d'un saint ou d'une sainte. De nos jours, il ne reste parfois que la niche vide!

Sometimes people were very religious and thought one wasn't enough! How many can you count on that one?

This last one is in my parents' town.

 

 I would have LOVED my house to have that kind of details. It doesn't. I did visit one house while looking for mine that had a niche with a statue, though. But for all kind of reasons, I didn't even make an offer on it. I still have a picture of it on my computer!

L'une des maisons que j'avais visitée lorsque je cherchais la mienne comportait une niche avec la statue! Cela aurait dû suffire à me séduire, mais pour tout un tas d'autres raisons, je n'ai pas fait d'offre sur celle-là. Il me reste cependant une photo!

 

Can you see it between the two bedroom windows on the second floor? 

Now, you might also notice something's written on the granite under it. It's a date: 1898. Many houses around here have the date they were built written on a lintel.

Il y avait aussi sur cette maison la date de construction gravée sur un linteau... C'est typique de la région. Décidément, elle avait tout pour plaire cette maison, pourquoi je ne l'ai pas choisi, au fait?

For example, this one is on a house in my neighbourhood.

 The houses in my street that have dates on them are all around 1910, so I guess my house is about a century old, but I haven't found a date anywhere yet.

Les maisons de mon quartier ont toutes une date juste avant la Première Guerre Mondiale et je soupçonne ma maison de dater donc de cette époque, même si je n'en ai trouvé (encore) aucune trace sur la maison.

Sometimes lintels above the door or the windows are very ornate.

Parfois, les linteaux sont très ornés, comme celui-là. Lorsqu'on les trouve sur des maisons modestes, c'est généralement qu'ils ont été volés dans un château voisin, souvent à l'époque de la Révolution.

If this happens to be on a modest house, there's no way farmers could pay an artist for that kind of job and it usually means that it was stolen from an old castle, usually right after the French Revolution. 

Sometimes, when you visit a castle around here, the tour guide will tell you that if you want to see the wonderful lintels that used to be there, you have to walk through the nearest village and keep an eye on their doors and windows!

I hope you enjoyed that series on Cottages in Brittany. I had much fun sharing those posts with you.
You can read part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4 if you haven't already!

J'espère que vous avez apprécié cette série sur les maisons bretonnes. J'ai adoré partager ces articles avec vous. Vous pouvez lire l'épisode 1, l'épisode 2, l'épisode 3 et l'épisode 4 si ce n'est déjà fait!

See you soon for a sneak peek on the treasure I found while thrifting!

I'm linking with:
Le Château des Fleurs