Sentiers du Patrimoine ®
Montalet-le-Bois
Poursuivre jusqu’à la mairie.
Prochain point : Lat. 49.050038, Long. 1.827594
This house used to host the town hall and school of the commune. Built in 1847, it accommodated a classroom on the ground floor and the municipal offices above. In the small rural communes of the French Vexin, it was not unusual in the 19th century for these two functions to be combined in a single building, before laws gradually required separate premises for the town hall and the school. In the second half of the 19th century, the school enrolled 20 to 30 pupils per year, all taught together in a single mixed-age class under the supervision of one schoolmaster.
Not far from this former town hall and school, a building still bears a sign identifying it as the old post office, although its location changed over time within the village. On early 20th-century postcards from around 1900, the “post, telegraph, and telephone” office was situated in a building opposite the present town hall, on Rue de l’Église. Elsewhere, along the road towards the hamlet of Les Férets, a stone cross still stands at the intersection of three roads. Crosses at crossroads were particularly common, combining a religious function with a practical role as landmarks in the landscape.
