French Architecture

Geographic Comparisons

Gothic: In the south of France, many of the major churches are without transepts and some are without aisles

Renaissance: France was involved in wars with Northern Italy and brought back Renaissance art treasures and stylistic ideas. Most of the wave of building was carried out in the Loire Valley and many Renaissance castles (chateaux) appeared. The Loire Valley was ideal because many ideas and arts could easily be passed down river.

Baroque and and Rococo both started in France and moved east from the German borders.\

 

Regional

In the north west of France, the Renaissance architecture is almost absent in the region because those  regions were suffering from wars and independence and being taken over again.

 

The traditional habitat of the Alsatian lowland, like in other regions of Germany and Northern Europe, consists of houses constructed with walls in timber framing and cob and roofing in flat tiles. Periods of war and bubonic plague often struck the villages which were often burned down. To prevent the collapse of the upper floors, ground floors were built of stone and upper floors built in half-timberings to prevent the spread of fire.

 

Southern France like to use more limestone compared to northern france because the abundance of it on the Mediterranean coast.