ABSTRACT
Second homes have existed in Europe for a long time: they first grew out of the forms of mobility which prevailed in rural areas. Transhumant herders, in the Swiss Valais for instance (Brunhes and Girardin 1906), had their first homes in their village. In May, at the time of haymaking, they stood in their mayens, higher on the slopes; from June to September, when their herds grazed the high altitude grassland of Alps, they lived in their chalets where they produced cheese. They had also cabanons in the small vineyards they often owned and cultivated in the Rhone Valley. Visitors, who discovered Alpine landscapes at the end of the eighteenth century or the beginning of the nineteenth, Ramon de Carbonnières (1781–1782) for instance, were struck by the high number of buildings in areas where the population density was low: most of them where occupied only a few days, a few weeks or a few months during the year.
