FONTAINES ET LAVOIRS RURAUX

Fontenay does not lack water! The town still has fountains, wash houses and even the old municipal baths-showers that remind us of the old days when we had to leave the houses to get water. It is from water that Fontenay probably took its name. Among the witnesses of the time when water was not yet common:

The Butte fountain

Built of millstone, decorated with bricks, with a masonry roof and not framed, with its rounded niche, it looks like a small chapel. It was the meeting point of all the social strata of the commune, a place for exchanges and discussions.

The Bordes washhouse

This washhouse is located in Rue Victor Hugo, a street that had two washhouses. One of them was simply built in the bed of the river, with a cinder block wall and covered with metal sheets. It disappeared in 1978 to allow the construction of houses. The lavoir des Bordes is the second of Victor Hugo street.

The Trou Babet wash house

This building was built in 1853 on Boulevard de l'Est. It was solemnly inaugurated by the mayor Pierre Larsonnier. It preceded the bathhouse that was built next to it by a few years.

The Morin fountain

Located on the church square, opposite the château du Duke of Épernon, and built on the former site of the market hall which had just been moved, this three-spout fountain dates from the end of the 16th century. It supplied the neighbouring farms and the homes of the village for nearly four centuries, with water from the Saint-Morin spring in Marles-en-Brie.

The old bathhouse of Fontenay

This beautiful century-old stone and brick building, was first rehabilitated as a library. It now houses the musée Hippolyte Henry dedicated to the various components of local life at the beginning of the last century in this rural area. This building received in 2021 the "Patrimoine d'Intérêt Régional" (Heritage of Regional Interest) label.