Participating in community activities is an important aspect of life in France.
Three years ago, our local council floated the idea of a community bread/pizza oven, to connect communities and generations.
The idea gained traction and an initial plan was formulated to build an oven at the rear of Bazens Chateau.
After much discussion and research, an alternative proposal was put forward ... a mobile oven.
This oven, made of sheet metal and weighing several hundred kilos, would ultimately be transported around the district on the back of a trailer.
If people could not go to the bread oven, then it would go to them!
Bérangère Lassevils, from the association Vivre Mieux Ensemble at Port Saint Marie, took the reins and organised funding for the project.
Money came from the Conférence des financeurs (Lot et Garonne department) and Carsat, which finances projects involving pensioners.
But who would build the oven? Plans were downloaded from the internet, as an open source document from a website that involved an identical oven fabricated by country bakers.
The plans made the task look highly complex and specialised. At first blush, the plans looked like a NASA moon-module!
A local ironsmith, Solene Huet, rose to the challenge. She possessed impeccable credentials, being the creator of a life-size elephant that stands by the roadside a few kilometres from Prayssas.
The project progressed slowly but steadily. Then Covid hit and work came to a halt.
When it resumed, a few local volunteers participated in workshops to assist Solene and learn new skills. These included the measuring and cutting of materials from plan specifications, welding and assembling.
I attended a few of these workshops with my neighbour and friend Remy. Jacky, the Deputy Mayor, also got involved.
All the hard work came to fruition in the spring of this year. It was with great excitement and a sense of satisfaction that we gathered at Solene's for the inaugural bread-oven firing and pizza lunch.
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A local baker, Fabrice, brought the dough and oversaw operations.
The fire was lit at 8.30am and by midday the interior temperature was ready at 300 degrees.
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While Fabrice kneaded the bread dough, a cast of eager helpers chopped ingredients for the pizzas. We worked in the shade of a giant Lime tree, as the outside temperature rose into the high 30s.
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| Fabrice kneads the dough |
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| People made their favourite pizzas |
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| Hot work |
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| Pizzas for all |
The oven proved a great success and we all thoroughly enjoyed the lunch. Families took home freshly baked bread.
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Crowd-funding of the trailer to transport the oven is underway. It will provide so many opportunities for residents to come together, learn more about the ancient practice of communal baking and enjoy the fruits of their labour.
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| Fabrice, the baker |
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| Solene, the Iron Lady |
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| Remy, Solene and Jacky |
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| Bérangère |
Our bread oven was a long time in the planning and construction ... but it was worth it!
Hey, Tony! As you say, the four banal is nothing new, but the traveling four banal probably is, four banal itinérant! That is a great idea.
ReplyDeleteHow many communities will it go to? And in specific days and dates?
Now, I have an English grammar question. How and when is the hyphen used in English?
As I said before, the hyphen is very important in French and whether you use it or not with two or more words could mean two different things. For example, let’s take the town near which Ken lives, Saint-Aignan. With an upper case S and an hyphen it means a village or a town or any kind of locality. With a lower case s and no hyphen, it means the saint (we don’t use a capital S) after which the town was named.
l accept you don’t use hyphens when writing in English (I write New-York and San-Diégo in French), but in some instances your native French readers might get confused.
Charles-Henry with an hyphen is my first name. Charles Henry without hyphen, Charles is my first name and Henry my last name!
DeleteHi Charles-Henry, um, I'm not sure if I can give you a definitive answer on the use of the hyphen in English grammar. I see that you have gently admonished me for its absence in the name of our nearby town. I accept I have been lazy in not using it with Port-Sainte-Marie. It's a bad habit, I guess! Dates and villages for the portable bread oven have not yet been set. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading my little account of what was a wonderful occasion. I hope you are keeping well. Here, the summer is unfolding and villages and towns all over the Lot et Garonne are staging music events and night markets. Despite the brutal heat-waves that sweep over us periodically, this is a great time of year. I will take photos of my prolific potager soon and blog about that. Cheers!
DeleteLOL! Tony. When you write Lot et Garonne, you’re talking about two rivers, but when you write Lot-et-Garonne, you talk about a French département.
DeleteI guess I already told you, bis repetita placent, your posts are always interesting, well written and pleasant to read. Better say it twice than none at all, innit?
Well, did I tell you I broke my hip two years ago, went through and survived Covid, and had lousy therapy for the first several months. Then when I was making some progress with a good new therapist, a varicose ulcer broke up on my foot last July, making painful to put pressure on that foot. It is almost healed now and I’m looking forwad to the day when I can try and learn how to walk again! Time will tell.
Now I have a new name, Mr. Hyphen! LOL!
DeleteI am always confused with pospositions. I should have said (probably) broke out instead of broke up!
DeleteLot-et-Garonne ... of course, will I ever learn?!
DeleteIt’s because hyphens are barely used in English!
DeleteHi Tony,
ReplyDeleteI just received this link from Le Robert, an excellent French/French Dictionary, that you might find interesting to improve your French.I didn’t check it, but coming from Le Robert, it must be good.
http://m6.newsletters.lerobert.com/nl/jsp/m.jsp?c=3%2Fd2FW8tkmtUZa5eVf8K3qvObzR4dLf7