A postcard from Troyes: a Half-timbered City

We’re on our way to Spain to see daughter and family, trundling down through eastern France. Now we’re in the Aube, in Troyes. It’s been a successful city since Roman times, but what you see now is a place that still has hundreds of half-timbered houses. Still lived in, still used as shops and business-places. A few are in bad nick. Some are being renovated. Some lean at impossibly drunken angles. Most are well cared for and entirely habitable, just getting on with life, as they have been for centuries. And a few of them provide a convenient surface for discreet pieces of street art.

Author: margaret21

I'm retired and living in North Yorkshire, where I walk as often as I can, write, volunteer, and travel as often as I can.

49 thoughts on “A postcard from Troyes: a Half-timbered City”

      1. True. And the houses in Alsace are also different to Germany (which it used to be, kind of, during the time the half-timbered houses were built) and different to other French areas, etc.

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    1. I shouldn’t really have included that one. Those roof tiles are more typical of Burgundy, so we’ll see more tomorrow as we drive towards the south. Troyes is wonderful. We’ll come again.

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  4. Those half-timbered buildings are rather stunning. Just think lots of English towns used to have many half-timbered buildings, though slightly different shapes and probably smaller sizes too. Ipswich has a handful left dotted about amongst the 1960’s concrete civic improvements!

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  8. Had to look this one up, and the photos are amazing! I figured you’d be driving down the western side of France, but I guess this is a better route. So who is driving?

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  11. Oh, marvellous! I love half timbered houses, and as you say”Germany looks different from England looks different from France etc, despite the obvious similarities.”…. But in all my meanderings through France, I didn’t linger in Troyes, silly me.

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  16. Enjoy your travels, Margaret. We especially loved visiting Troyes, amazing place. So, I enjoyed reliving it via your visit. I am so pleased various communities in France keep these types of places alive.

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  20. I LOVE Troyes! And always I marvelled at How Can They Still Stand houses?! How can one wish to have a shop in a building leaning so precariously to one side? How can you put ANY furniture in those places with not a single straight wall in it? We once even stayed for a night – it was awesome but not overly comfy…

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  21. Ah. We were luckier and stayed in a wonderful place overlooking the cathedral. If you go again, get in touch and we’ll give you the low-down.

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