Lavoir, Fontaine-le-Port

Friday
This afternoon I was out at Book Club in Chartrettes, another village along the River Seine. The home we were at is across the road from the river, and as we sat in her beautiful living room on the front of the house we could look out the large picture window and see the barge traffic going up and down the river - and it was quite a busy afternoon! The book we were discussing was Louise Erdrich The Round House, as I mentioned the other day. We were unanimous in thinking it was a wonderful, well-written book, with well-developed characters and several sub plots and themes. On my way back home I passed through the village of Fontaine-le-Port, where we had lived for the last four years of our last residence over here, from 1992-1996. I didn't have a blip for the day yet, so I stopped for a little stroll around. A feature of many French villages is the village lavoir, or communal wash house, and I thought I would start an intermittent series on some of the lavoirs in the area. The village had three at one time, of which this is the oldest. It is located on a stream shortly before it joins the River Seine, and if you think the roof looks a bit low, that is because the water level has been raised due to the building of locks on the river.