ANDRE MEYNIER, one of the heirs of French rural geography studied the forms in partitioned bocage landscapes and with the help of remote sensing distinguished what he called enclosed landscapes ellipses. He dedicated several articles to them among which "les ensembles cadastraux circulaires en Bretagne" in les Annales de Bretagne (Published in 1945 in Rennes) and "la genèse du parcellaire Breton" (Published in 1966 in Norois). After the epistemological revolution of French geography in the 1960's and 1970's, this subject gradually became obsolete as well as classical rural geography as a whole. In this thesis, the subject of my study - broadened to the notion of Inherited Spatial Forms, and consequently connected to long historical time as Fernand Braudel defines it - is reexamined to evaluate its relevance when confronted to the paradigms of modern geography. Along with a geography intending to be dynamic, how could we bring long historical time into the equation when such a time is - on a recent scale at least - sometimes perceived as still and permanent ? How would new geographical streams have been able to express interest in this subject when it is often overlooked as a remnant of the past? The present reflection is meant to encompass all geographical streams without leaving any aside. The objective is also to develop a disciplinary dialectic that would go further than visible paradoxes. In order to delve into these problems, Inherited spatial forms were chosen not only in Brittany but in Northern France and in the Benelux as well, where wooded areas on the outskirts of villages, especially in the Ardennes, have a major role on defining the limits of said villages: they are also bordering areas allowing the link with discontinuities to be made. This region on the threshold of the Hercynian world will take us to an adventurous trip through Eastern Europe.