12- With the family in the village of thatched cottages

The plateau house: Surrounded by a low wall to protect it from the snow and from the “burle”, that violent wind laden with ice, the plateau house looks like an austere fortress, with stone from the foundations to the roof (except for the thatched cottages of Bigorre and Moudeyres). Its shapes are squat (2-metre walls), its openings small and facing south. A vaulted porch, the “arcasse”, serves as a shared entrance for people and animals; a wooden partition separates the cowshed from the living area, the “carré”. The house is often reduced to a single room containing box beds, a cupboard, a clock, a long table and two benches, not forgetting the fireplace, the “cantou”. An inside staircase leads to the hayloft, which takes up the whole upper floor because of the large quantity of fodder needed by the livestock, which stays seven to eight months in the cowshed.