“I love this sound”, that of water flowing in the turrons. Stéphane Dusseau returns to it whenever he has the opportunity. This Bordeaux native, who has long lived in the bastide of Eymet, in the Dordogne, likes to enjoy these peaceful places lost in the surrounding countryside, carved into the rock, where the sounds of beaters and the chatter of washerwomen once echoed.
Turron. A strange name, probably derived from the…
“I love this sound”, that of water flowing in the turrons. Stéphane Dusseau returns to it whenever he has the opportunity. This Bordeaux native, who has long lived in the bastide of Eymet, in the Dordogne, likes to enjoy these peaceful places lost in the surrounding countryside, carved into the rock, where the sounds of beaters and the chatter of washerwomen once echoed.
The tourons. A strange name, probably derived from the Occitan “teron”, to designate in Périgord sources or natural fountains gushing from caves or rocky massifs. The geology of the Pays d’Eymet explains their presence in number on this side of the department. And the abundance of running water in their places ended up giving rise, between the middle of the 19th and the middle of the 20th century, for reasons of public health, to the installation of wash houses with particularly neat architecture. Jewels of small built heritage, otherwise so rich in Dordogne.
The turrons of Eymet and its surroundings are sometimes well indicated.
Virginie Desmet
Engraved first names
President of the Committee for Historical and Archaeological Studies of Eymet (Cehare), Stéphane Dusseau has contributed to restoring the value of these forgotten sites, whose past is not so distant. “These wash houses were used until the mid-1960s,” he recalls. “Many Eymet residents learned to swim in these basins while their mothers washed their clothes.”
At the Saint-Sulpice-d’Eymet touron, these saddles still bear the first names of the washerwomen who used them.
Virginie Desmet
One of the most spectacular washhouses is that of Saint-Sulpice-d’Eymet. Now a Natura 2000 site, it is located at the resurgence of an underground river, coming out of a cave into which one can sink for about twenty meters. Here, the washhouse has been partly built in the cavity, sheltered. And stone saddles still bear, engraved, the first names of those who came to kneel there to work.
“These wash houses were used until the mid-1960s. Many Eymet residents learned to swim in these basins.”
The beautiful Fonroque turron is located just behind the village.
Virginie Desmet
Saint-Sulpice is perhaps the most surprising, but Fonroque is undoubtedly the most beautiful. A few hundred meters from the RN 21 which crosses the village, the place, which can be reached from the heart of this fortified town by a grassy path, is well signposted. There is also the Ringuet and its crystal-clear water basins, Eylias, Rouquette, that of Razac-d’Eymet… “These places were alive at one time and for me, they still are,” confides Stéphane Dusseau.
Some accesses to the underground sources of these turrons are protected by gates, like here at Ringuet.
Virginie Desmet
The water is particularly clear at the Ringuet washhouse.
Virginie Desmet
The tourons are bucolic sites that are a bit mysterious. Stéphane Dusseau is convinced that their history goes back “at least to the Gallo-Roman era”, to a time when water was beginning to be domesticated. Is it a coincidence that in the 1970s, a stone’s throw from the Eylias touron, a ceramic pot containing Gallo-Roman coins was found?
It was near this washhouse of Eylias, in Eymet, that Gallo-Roman pieces were found in the 1970s.
Virginie Desmet
Setting off to discover the nougats means diving into the local history of the Pays d’Eymet, which is strongly linked to the Dropt and its tributaries. It also means exploring this very typical countryside shaped by wine-growing activity, full of little treasures that are still unknown.
Practical
Visits to these washhouses are organised every year during national events, such as Heritage Days or Archaeology Days. A map was also published in 2023, on which these places are listed, so that everyone can visit them freely. It is available at the tourist information office in Eymet – Portes Sud Périgord. Tel. 05 53 23 74 95. Email: [email protected]. Website: www.pays-bergerac-tourisme.com.
