La Basse-Cour

Traditionally this was not only the part of the farmyard or its adjacent buildings where country families would raise their chickens, geese, ducks and rabbits. La basse-cour also meant the activity carried on there, always by the woman of the house. When looking after the geese, she was called la gardeuse and features as such on so many old photographs and postcards of the region. She might delegate some of her duties to the children of the family, but the men were not expected or even allowed to interfere.