Timber framing in French is known colloquially as pan de bois and half-timbering as colombage.  The timber-framing technique has historically been popular in climate zones which favor deciduous hardwood trees, such as oak. Techniques used in timber framing date back to Neolithic times, and have been used in many parts of the world during various periods such as ancient Japan, continental Europe, and Neolithic France. The Normandy tradition features two techniques: frameworks were built of four evenly spaced regularly hewn timbers set into the ground or into a continuous wooden sill and mortised at the top into the plate.  
The juxtaposition of exposed timbered beams and infilled spaces created the distinctive "half-timbered". The most ancient known half-timbered building is called the House of opus craticum. It was buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Herculaneum, Italy. Opus craticum was mentioned by Vitruvius in his books on architecture as a timber frame with wattle work infill. However, the same term is used to describe timber frames with an infill of stone rubble laid in mortar the Romans called opus incertum.
Half-timbered construction in the Northern European vernacular building style is characteristic of medieval and early modern Denmark, England, Germany, and parts of France and Switzerland, where timber was in good supply yet stone and associated skills to dress the stonework were in short supply. The earliest surviving (French) half-timbered buildings date from the 12th century. In half-timbered construction, timbers that were split in half provided the complete skeletal framing of the building.