Montmin wash-house

The communal wash-house of Montmin

Located on the central square of Montmin, the Lavoir was a meeting place reserved for women and allowed them to wash their clothes in better sanitary conditions than at home where, mainly in winter, conditions were very difficult. 

Laundry in the home itself posed many problems (steam dampening the walls, water run-off), so clothes were only washed twice a year (laundry became monthly in the 1900s and weekly in the 1930s), with the less fortunate keeping their clothes until they were completely used.

These "big washes", called "buées", usually lasted three days:

- On the first day, the clothes are immersed in huge wooden tubs for a first scouring;

- On the second day, the linen is washed in the same tubs or other tanks, covered with a cloth on which the pouring is practiced, i.e. the pouring of boiling water with a long-handled container on a thick layer of ashes whose potassium carbonate constitutes an excellent cleaning agent

- On the third day, the laundry is rinsed and wrung out in the wash house. 

Today, there is a washhouse in almost every hamlet of Talloires-Montmin, with their small ephemeral libraries, some of which have found a new use!