Quercy Houses

Quercy traditionally is composed of higher Quercy, centred on Cahors, and of lower Quercy, centred on Montauban. Higher quercy corresponds today to the Lot department.

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Quercy traditional houses were generally built from the early 18th century to World War I. Typical properties in this Midi Pyrenees region of France are built on a rectangular plan, with a long façade wall. The house generally has a chimney too. As in Périgord, the landless peasant would inhabit a single rectangular room, while the day-labourer with a small holding, the sharecropper and the small landowner all live in a longère. The hall contains a wide chimney that could be used for cooking on hot cinders.

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Once more, pigeonniers/ dovecotes are frequently seen in the Quercy countryside, these animals providing a cheap but sought-after fertilizer, colombine. The upper-floor house is common in Quercy, except to the North of the river Dordogne. It is also common around Cahors.

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• Summary of Midi Pyrenees Traditional Architecture