The chair-making workshop was founded in 1872 by Eugène Lafont in a former factory in the rue Nationale at Vallabrègues, Gard, France, employing a number of craftsmen to work the wood (mainly beech and cherry) and women to weave the boze, or natural marsh rye staw. In 1941, Eugène's son-in-law Roger Monleau took over the workshop with his wife Irma Lafont. Since then, though electricity and improved machinery have reduced worker numbers, the worshop remains a family-run entreprise priding itself on its traditional craftsmanship. All kinds of chair styles are made here: Provençal, Camargue and Rustic, customised to everybody's fashions and tastes, in plain wodd, waxed or painted. The chairs, radassiers, armchairs, stolls, child chairs, tables, have turned the rue Nationale into one long showroom.