The thatcher

At a glance

• Place: Grande Brière marsh
• Material: local reed (others use Camargue sagne)
• Cost: about 25% more than slate
• Insulation: rain penetrates only about 2 cm

From poverty to pride

A thatched roof used to be a sign of poverty. With the regional nature park's encouragement, thatch became a symbol of the Brière, and old villages such as Mayun, Fédrun and Camerun restored their roofs. About ten thatchers were working there in the 1990s, many former slaters or masons.

Cutting the reed

From December to March the cutter poles a punt through misty, flooded channels to the best reed, wades in thigh boots into the black water and cuts the reed from the peat with a quick stroke of the sickle, then dries it in front of his house. Most thatchers prefer to buy Camargue sagne, delivered on demand, because local reed must be stored.

On the roof

The thatcher climbs a long iron ladder a hundred times a day with bundles on his shoulder, feeling for the battens with his boots. He lays the reed in courses from the bottom up, binding it with wire threaded by a needle he forged from a rake tooth, and dresses it with a wooden palette to follow the slope. In the Norman method, vertical rows about thirty centimetres wide start at the verges, and the ridge is sealed with lime and cement.

Why thatch

"Thatch is the best insulator there is," says Pédron. Water slides off the reed; after a whole day of rain it is wet only to a depth of two centimetres.