Huddled on the South of its church, Saint-Michel area is one of the oldest in
La-Ferté-Saint-Aubin; until 18th C. it was the administrative and commercial
center of the village.
The square at the junction between the main road and
rue Saint-Michel was called "Place de la Halle" at the time ; It included a
common house-hall, a common well and a few houses, among them, the house of a
postmaster.
The common house-hall, erected by the landlord in the late 16th
C., was used as a town-hall, a court, or a covered market on thursdays; an
adjacent building, was used as a jail.
In that area, a few timber framed
houses are still standing.
The Ecu de France Inn is among the oldest ones
since a lease of it, as old as 1672, had been discovered. In the next street,
rue de Sully, one can still recognize a few scarce timber framed houses -
specially a rare two-stored building.
In Saint-Michel and Saint-Aubin
parishes most of the old brick houses let us the legacy of the four
tile-brickworks that operated in that area.