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Montlivaut and its washhouse from 1831

Updated: Jan 27, 2023

And if you took the time to tell you the legends of the past.

In Montlivaut, take a walk in this very small village and look for this magnificent washhouse which dates from 1831.


This washhouse would have been used for the life of this commune and the inhabitants of the surroundings,

during more than 100 years!


It was a place of life, indispensable, in the time of our elders.


These wash houses have become rare testimonies that we are lucky enough

to still be able to admire here.


Useless today, more and more villages get rid of them by destroying them.

Suèvres, Montlivaut, Cour-sur-Loire you will still find some which deserve

the detour.


The one of Montlivaut is our favorite.


Often, these places of life can plunge us into very strange stories.

In the past, during evening gatherings, families would meet and tell each other

all sorts of legends.

The one I'm going to tell you about comes from a Celtic tradition,

a myth that circulated for a long time in our countryside in the 19th century.


The story of the washerwomen of Nuit.


George Sand described them as follows :


"the real washerwomen are the souls of infanticidal mothers. They beat and twist incessantly some objects which look like wet linen, but which, seen closely, is only a child's corpse".


It was claimed that these spectres came on the evenings of the full moon, to wash linen soiled with blood and shrouds (in the past, a kind of sheet covering the dead).

These cursed women are condemned to this work to atone for their sins.

They would also have a message to pass on: according to tradition, if you see them at the wash house or on the banks of the rivers, these apparitions are not without danger, a forthcoming death will be announced !


Revisit these places of life and tell your children these legends of the past.

They will see these places with a completely different eye...


Translation by DeepL

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