Les Lavandières

The most common technique used when washing in a river or stream was for the washerwoman to kneel on a flat stone or in a “carosse” (a padded wooden box with straw or pieces of fabric to protect the knees) and then to put clothes into the water, rub them with ash, rinse them and then wring and beat them with a wooden paddle. Finally the laundry was placed in a basket or a wheelbarrow and taken to a drying place. Our cards from the Dropt show the former to be the most used but the postcard from Limoges shows a majority of women using the carosse.