French Colonial Architecture

French colonial architecture covers the several building styles used by French colonists during France's colonizing activity, beginning in North America in 1604 and remaining most active in the Western Hemisphere, including Canada, Louisiana, the Caribbean and Guiana, until the nineteenth century, when French colonial attention shifted more toward Africa, Asia and Oceania. A French colonial house is typically identified by a hipped roof, a porch and gallery with iron railings, French doors, columns and a raised first story or half emerged basement, often with a spacious covered balcony or veranda providing shade. The style drew on French architectural influences of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries while adapting them to local cultural influences and climate, as in the subtropical southern United States, where climate did much to shape French colonists' architectural choices.