Glossary
ArdoiseSlate: a metamorphic rock that splits into thin, flat sheets, used as a roof covering across much of northern and western France.CharpenteThe timber roof structure — rafters, purlins, tie beams and their joints — that carries the roof covering.ChauxLime: the binder of historic mortars, renders and washes.Chemin de rondeThe wall-walk: a passage running along the top of a defensive wall behind the parapet, from which the wall could be watched and defended along its whole length.ColombageTimber framing with an infill of brick, cob or plaster between the members.CommunsThe service buildings of an estate — stables, coach houses, bakehouse, laundry, staff lodgings — usually grouped around their own court apart from the main block.Corps de logisThe main residential block of a château, as distinct from its towers, wings and outbuildings.DonjonThe keep: the strongest and usually tallest tower of a castle, holding the lord’s own quarters and the last line of defence.DouvesThe moat: a ditch, wet or dry, surrounding a fortified building.ÉchauguetteA small turret corbelled out from the corner or wall of a fortification, giving a lookout a view along the face of the wall.GentilhommièreA small country seat of the minor nobility: larger and more formally composed than a farmhouse, smaller and plainer than a château.LucarneA dormer: a window set vertically in a sloping roof, with its own small roof and cheeks.MâchicoulisA projecting parapet carried on corbels, with openings in the floor between them, from which defenders could act on anyone at the foot of the wall.MeurtrièreAn arrowslit: a narrow vertical opening splayed inwards, giving an archer a wide field of fire through a small target.OrangerieA long, south-facing garden building with tall windows, built to overwinter citrus and other tender plants in tubs.PavillonA distinct block, usually square in plan and with its own roof, terminating or punctuating a range.Pierre de tailleAshlar: stone cut to precise faces and laid in fine joints, as opposed to rubble masonry.TuffeauA soft, pale, highly porous limestone quarried in the Loire and Cher valleys, and the characteristic building stone of Loire Renaissance châteaux.