Fotos

This is a typical flemish house (farm or workers house) in wood/claywork (english= half-timbered; french = colombage; dutch = vakwerk; german = fachwerk). This architecture was very common all along the northsea coast, but has only survived in a few places in the south of West-Flanders and the North of France. Where I live, the structure of this kind of houses is the same but the houses are completely made in bricks (none of these as in the picture survived). I was happily surprised to find this exceptional example in the center of the village.
Off course this kind of half-timbered houses exist(ed)s in other places, but there are significant differences in construction method with what can be found elsewhere in France or Belgium or Germany.
The front of the house: http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Europe/France/photo428042.htm