Hey. Instead of presenting myself with the basic things (name, age, hobbies, studies and all these boring stuffs), I would introduce me by showing the most unusual attraction of my city.
To start, I will do a bit of geography. I live in Laval. As you probably don’t know, Laval is a town of 50 000 inhabitants in the West of France, close to Brittany, at 300kms from the capital Paris (city I deeply hate)
Then, You can wondering what sightseeing there are. Frankly, almost none; as all French town, there is a church, a castle, some museums and 3 mains festivals. The first one, called “equival” is about horses, the second one called “BAlladelles” is about Middle Ages. I like that one because it is the only time we can find “cervoise” which is a very ancient Gaullish alcohol. The last one, called the “Uburlesque” is very nice as well because during 4 days, there are a lot of artists performing funny shows all across the city.
But, for me, the most important attraction in Laval are the “Bateau Lavoir”, which means laundry boat. Although it doesn’t have a very attractive name. It is one of the symbol of the old France.
Let’s start by a lesson of history. Until the 1960s, most of the people didn’t have any washing machine. So, when they needed to wash their clothes, they had to use the river. That is why in several city in France, the city built boat on the river with facilities to wash the laudry. There were 2 floors, the bottom one was used to wash and rinse whereas the top one was used to dry the laundry thanks to huge basin, shared by all the women ( At that time, women were doing the chores) who could washed their laundry much more easily than if they were alone. However, with the arrival of the washing machine, such boat were obsolets and outdated and almost all the cities decided to destruct them.
Fortunately, in Laval, where there used to be up to 20 laundry boat, the City council decided to keep two of them. That is why, just in front of my home ( on the other side of the river), there are still two “bateaux lavoir”. One is called “Saint-Julien” and is visited by hundreds (even maybe thousands) tourists every summer.
There are several pictures of them
You see the pink building at the right of the second picture? My home is between this building and the parc behind. I can see these boats every day from my window.
That’s the end for today
Leo
EF TUI Level 6 
Haha, cool stuff ey
In Stockholm it’s popular to go with these boats from Nynäshamn to Finland
What an interesting article, but it’s a little bit long that hard to read to the end.
I’m sure, most people must like to be traveling around France and I think your town will be an amazing place to get around as well! And I also hope to visit France to shop my violin & its accessaries~ ^_^
Leo, what an exciting story about Laundry boats in Laval. All over the world people who live near rivers have used them for washing clothes. It’s still a practice in many parts of Asia.
Thanks Leo for the intersting article.