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The temporary cultivation of forested lots was a common agricultural practice in the forested areas of Provence at the end of the Middle Ages. Clearings (essarts) were temporary and periodical enclaves of cultum within the incultum and were closely associated with the way vegetal resources were put to use. This practice generated peasant mobility, since temporary settlements were set up occasionally on the cultivated site. However, the settlement strategies and forms of habitat associated with temporary or periodical cultivation have never been studied. The analysis of their technical, spatial and chronological characteristics shows that the determining parameter in these temporary occupations was neither the distance one had to cover between the main place of residence and the work site, nor the time constraints, but the extent to which it was necessary to oversee and protect the sowings. While the presence of huts is proven, their shape and mode of construction have never been described. The periodical nature of some cultivation sometimes led to the reoccupation of existing structures. At other times, both cultivation and temporary habitats were illegally made permanent within commons, which brought about conflicts between the public authorities and the individuals concerned, i. e. between the law and customary uses.