Houses in the Middle Ages comprised a stonework ground floor, wooden beams and a framework of wooden posts, known as 'colombage' (half-timbered). The spaces between the posts were packed with small stones covered with plaster. This gave the city a whitewashed appearance, long-since disappeared. The oldest house in Paris still in existence after Philippe-Auguste's time was probably at the end of the 13th century.
Ihn 1200 the first signs of differences among private houses start to appear.
Streets and merchants in the middle ages
Miniature du Livre de Gouvernement des Princes
fin du XVe siècle Paris,
Bibl Arsenal