Le Roi du Château
Glossary
- ArdoiseSlate: a metamorphic rock that splits into thin, flat sheets, used as a roof covering across much of northern and western France. Laid in overlapping courses on battens, it can last well over a century, though the fixings often fail before the slate itself does.
- CharpenteThe timber roof structure — rafters, purlins, tie beams and their joints — that carries the roof covering. In French châteaux it is frequently oak and frequently the oldest surviving fabric in the building, since roof coverings are replaced far more often than the frame beneath them.
- ChauxLime: the binder of historic mortars, renders and washes. Lime mortar is softer and more permeable than the stone around it, so it takes the movement and lets the wall dry. Replacing it with cement is the most common and most expensive mistake made on old masonry.
- 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. Many survive on châteaux that were never seriously fortified, kept for the silhouette.
- ColombageTimber framing with an infill of brick, cob or plaster between the members. Common in Normandy, Alsace and the Loire in domestic and service buildings, and in the outbuildings of châteaux more often than in the main block.
- CommunsThe service buildings of an estate — stables, coach houses, bakehouse, laundry, staff lodgings — usually grouped around their own court apart from the main block. On protected estates the communs are often listed separately from the château itself, or not at all.
- Corps de logisThe main residential block of a château, as distinct from its towers, wings and outbuildings. In classical planning it is the central range that faces the court of honour, with the principal rooms on the first floor.
- DonjonThe keep: the strongest and usually tallest tower of a castle, holding the lord’s own quarters and the last line of defence. In French building the donjon is often the oldest surviving element, later ranges having been rebuilt around it.
- DouvesThe moat: a ditch, wet or dry, surrounding a fortified building. Many later châteaux retain douves that are ornamental rather than defensive, and they remain significant for the building because they govern how water moves around the foundations.
- ÉchauguetteA small turret corbelled out from the corner or wall of a fortification, giving a lookout a view along the face of the wall. Later châteaux keep the form as a decorative accent at the angles of a pavilion or terrace.
- GentilhommièreA small country seat of the minor nobility: larger and more formally composed than a farmhouse, smaller and plainer than a château. The word describes standing rather than a building type, which is why the same house may appear in the registers as manoir or château.
- LucarneA dormer: a window set vertically in a sloping roof, with its own small roof and cheeks. In French châteaux the lucarne is often the most heavily ornamented element of the elevation, and its junction with the roof covering is a frequent source of water ingress.
- 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. From the fifteenth century onwards it survives largely as a decorative motif signalling noble status.
- MeurtrièreAn arrowslit: a narrow vertical opening splayed inwards, giving an archer a wide field of fire through a small target. The shape dates a wall closely, since the slit changed as weapons did — later versions widen at the base for firearms.
- OrangerieA long, south-facing garden building with tall windows, built to overwinter citrus and other tender plants in tubs. From the seventeenth century it becomes an architectural set piece in its own right, and today it is frequently the part of an estate adapted for events.
- PavillonA distinct block, usually square in plan and with its own roof, terminating or punctuating a range. The pavilion-and-range composition is the basic grammar of French classical château planning from the seventeenth century.
- Pierre de tailleAshlar: stone cut to precise faces and laid in fine joints, as opposed to rubble masonry. The quality of an elevation is largely set by the accuracy of its ashlar and by the width of the joints, which in historic work are usually only a few millimetres.
- TuffeauA soft, pale, highly porous limestone quarried in the Loire and Cher valleys, and the characteristic building stone of Loire Renaissance châteaux. Easily carved, it weathers by surface flaking when trapped moisture freezes, which is why lime mortar and permeable finishes are essential to it.