Lavoir

 

Lavoirs were built from the seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries. With Baron Haussmann's redesign of Paris in the 1850s, a free lavoir was established in every neighbourhood, and government grants encouraged municipalities across France to construct their own.^[1] Lavoirs are more common in certain areas, such as around the Canal du Midi.^[2]

Lavoirs are commonly sited on a spring or set over or beside a river. Many lavoirs are provided with roofs for shelter. With the coming of piped water supplies and modern drainage, lavoirs have been steadily falling into disuse although a number of communities have restored ancient lavoirs, some of which date back to the 10th century.

There are also bateaux-lavoirs ("laundry boats") in some towns on the banks of large rivers such as Paris and Lyon.

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  A lavoir at Groix
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  Lavoir at Noyers-sur-Serein
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  Lavoir at Gunstett
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  Laundry boat at Laval
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  Laundry boat in Haute-Garonne, 1901
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  Lavadero público in Spain about 1874 at Vellisca in the Province of Cuenca
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  Public wash-pool at Cabeção, Portugal
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  Public washbasins at San Miguel de Allende (México)
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  Fourneau Saint-Michel - Lavoir (Saint-Remy)

• Baths and wash houses in Britain
• Bleachfield
• Dhobi ghat, an outdoor laundry place in South Asia
• Dhobi Ghat
• Laundry#Washhouses

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wash houses.

• (in French) Les lavoirs de France
• (in French) Lavoirs in the department Aube
• (in French) Lavoirs in Champagne-Ardenne
• (in French) Lavoirs in Burgundy and Franche-comté