Pigeonnier

Apparently we are staying not staying in a dovecot, rather it is a pigeonnier which is like a posh dovecot for the bourgeoisie/nobility.

A pigeonnier was the privilege of the seigneurial lord and was seen very mush as a status symbol - like an accessory blonde model is to premiership footballers in more modern times.

You were permitted to have 1 entrance/nesting hole, or boulin, for every acre of land you owned. The bigger you pigeonnier, the more important you were, and the bigger nuisance it was for the local peasants!

This being France, I am sure that the application and verification process involved in building a pigeonnier required a great deal of form filling in, probably in triplicate!