Léglise   ▪

Ebly
The Mellier ironworks
The valley of the Géronne mills
The village of Léglise
Thibessart
Volaiville

Volaiville

Close to the nature reserve of the Sûre basin, not far from the confluent of the Géronne and the Sûre, is the little village of Volaiville.

This small corner of the Ardennes region is isolated from the main thoroughfares. It has a special village charm! From its high altitude, it borders valleys and hills. The Géronne and the Sûre keep the village company, flowing loyally and quietly by. The village contains some old traditional dwellings which have a sense of the sacred and unchanging about them...

Signs of a bygone age
The unique nature of this small Ardennes village of seventy residents lies in the isolation of each home with everything happening freely around it. Some of the homes are reminiscent of the arrangement of the village-streets of Lorraine with their successions of closely packed buildings.

Several 18th century farms of whitewashed shale and sandstone are characterised by the large number of buildings packed in together, containing various different outbuildings under slate hipped gable roofs (sometimes replaced by asbestos cement).

The traditional Ardennes farm is of the 'house block' type where people, animals and crops are all housed under the same roof. It is characterised in particular by its layout, with a more or less square floor plan subdivided into narrow and deep 'strips' running perpendicular to the façade of the building. Each cell has its own purpose: family life, stables and storage. The location of the isolated farms over the land enables loft barns to be built. This involves creating an earth mound to enable access to the upper storage area. This technique often results in transformations with certain old doorways becoming visible again.