This paper tackles the enumeration and asymptotics of the area below directed lattice paths (walks on ℕ, with a finite set of jumps). It is a nice surprise (obtained via the ``kernel method'') that the generating functions of the moments of the area are algebraic functions, expressible as symmetric functions in terms of the roots of the kernel. For a large class of walks, we give full asymptotics for the average area of excursions (``discrete'' reflected Brownian bridge) and meanders (``discrete'' reflected Brownian motion). We show that drift is not playing any rôle in the first case. We also generalise previous works related to the number of points below a path and to the area between a path and a line of rational slope.