Only doing washing once a year sounds tempting … 😂 Do you think it was to do with water availability or best time of year to dry everything? So interesting
Wash day was a huge undertaking even in very poor households. If there is a single machine that I think changed the way poorer women lived, it would be the washing machine. I worship mine! It would have been very much a summer undertaking. In many villages in France there were designated wash-houses built at the sides of rivers, allowing women to go and hang out there and wash together - I even have a book on the wash-houses of Anjou, and the village next to my old village was called Doué-La-Fontaine - with the fountain in question being the large and very old communal wash house that sits still in the old centre of the village. Water is pretty plentiful in this central-west region of France. But the washing for a house like the Château would have been more like an entire month and would have taken several women. Remember that everything was also starched and ironed....
Wow wow wow! I hadn’t thought of the fact that there was no water at the house so of course they would limit how often they go wash everything. Cannot believe they then starched and ironed! I need to remind myself of all of this when I have to do the laundry by just pressing a button and hanging it out to dry!
I have a few monogrammed linens from the Paris flea market & I loved reading about the history behind these stitches. I too wonder about whose hands made the stitches and what they thought about while they made their mark. Thank you. I also feel chilly reading about your chilly house!
I will now take a closer look at my grandmother’s initialed serviettes and pillow cases, purchased I’d say between 1920-1935, quite possibly from Le Bon Marché or La Samaritaine. Beautiful quality 💖
Only doing washing once a year sounds tempting … 😂 Do you think it was to do with water availability or best time of year to dry everything? So interesting
Wash day was a huge undertaking even in very poor households. If there is a single machine that I think changed the way poorer women lived, it would be the washing machine. I worship mine! It would have been very much a summer undertaking. In many villages in France there were designated wash-houses built at the sides of rivers, allowing women to go and hang out there and wash together - I even have a book on the wash-houses of Anjou, and the village next to my old village was called Doué-La-Fontaine - with the fountain in question being the large and very old communal wash house that sits still in the old centre of the village. Water is pretty plentiful in this central-west region of France. But the washing for a house like the Château would have been more like an entire month and would have taken several women. Remember that everything was also starched and ironed....
Wow wow wow! I hadn’t thought of the fact that there was no water at the house so of course they would limit how often they go wash everything. Cannot believe they then starched and ironed! I need to remind myself of all of this when I have to do the laundry by just pressing a button and hanging it out to dry!
I have a few monogrammed linens from the Paris flea market & I loved reading about the history behind these stitches. I too wonder about whose hands made the stitches and what they thought about while they made their mark. Thank you. I also feel chilly reading about your chilly house!
I'm about to go into the roof and work very hard and get warm!
Thank you for the history and kindness
I will now take a closer look at my grandmother’s initialed serviettes and pillow cases, purchased I’d say between 1920-1935, quite possibly from Le Bon Marché or La Samaritaine. Beautiful quality 💖