Beaucaire, Languedoc-Roussillon 30300

In Occitanie, in the historic center of Beaucaire, a former tanners house to rehabilitate in its entirety. Unlike many Provençal or Languedoc towns, Beaucaires historic center is not organized on an irregular urban grid but around axes that intersect at right angles. The proximity of the fairground, laid out along the Rhone and the theater of the Madeleine Fair, which guaranteed the citys prosperity for many centuries, ensured the attractiveness of streets lined with shops and dwellings. It is precisely in one of these streets in the historic sector, immediately surrounded by at least four listed monuments, that the former tanners residence is located. At the corner of three streets oriented south, west, and east, the building still externally reveals the two distinct parts that now compose it. The first, the taller, develops three stories over a ground floor. Initially used as a dwelling, it also housed a hide-drying loft in the attic and is dated 1680 on the city cadastre. The second, lower, was added after a late acquisition during the Directory period. Raised two stories over a ground-floor shop, it preserves on its street-corner façade a 1970s framework intended to strengthen its commercial visibility. The two-pitched roofs, covered with canal tiles, display the traditional characteristics of Languedocian constructions. The façades, built in large regular blocks of cut stone from Beaucaire quarries, have retained their original appearance and blend the two parts relatively homogeneously. The windows, most of which date from the 18th century, benefit from a substantial amount of natural light thanks to the opening created by the angle of the three streets. The Provençal two-thickness wooden shutters, punctuated by exposed back-nails and painted gray-blue, further reinforce the aesthetic coherence of the façades. Their jalousies (louvered shutters), open here and there on adjacent streets, allowed discreet observation of the comings and goings of customers.