3rd August 2008 – Sunday - St-Omer de Blain
At 8.15 this morning we were on our way to the Fete du Pain (Bread Making Festival)
We were heading out to join in the 10 km walk, the start of the Fete. It had been raining overnight so was pretty damp underfoot, nevertheless when we finally left there were approximately 90 people of all ages and sizes taking part, including many of our friends.
The schedule was to walk from village to village, 6 in total, to see the old bread ovens in
each stage of operation.
Each village had its own bread oven built central to the village, it was fired up to cook two or three times each week. A different family took the task of collecting the wood, drying it and firing up each time, usually by the men in the family whilst the women made the bread.
The Bread is Ready
Once the fire was red hot, the cinders were removed from the oven and placed in a
ten- gallon drum cut in half. The oven was then washed with muslin wrapped around a long pole and dipped in water. The bread cobs, known as boules, weighing 600gr each are then placed on long handled wooden spatula, crisscrossed with a knife and a handful of flour sprinkled on top and placed in the oven until cooked.
The Bread goes in
The walk took three hours, some people did not make the whole route but we did arriving back at the Fete around 12noon a little weary but pleased to have taken part.
Lunch was a meal in a field as usual. For €10 each we had duck with a mushroom and grape sauce, frites (chips), rock-melon, nectarine and of course cheese and the bread we had seen cooking.
We then had a stroll around the vide-grenier, ( carboot sale)but only bought a CD of old timers jazz for €1.
We watched the local farmers demonstrating three methods of threshing wheat, one huge machine appropriately called ‘Guillotine’ which threshed and baled. The other two machines were ancient and obviously not used anymore.
It was interesting to see rope-making carried out by three men, one big man had a chain around his waist with a sack over it to stop it cutting into his back, attached to the chain was a hook where the threads ran through, the threads were hooked over three hooks attached to a wheel, at a distance to how long the rope was to be, the wheel had a handle which was turned by a young man whilst at the same time the first man inserted a metal rod into the hook around his waist, thus forming the twist, the third man had a piece of wood with three notches cut into it which was slid up the rope acting as a guide. I wonder if this is the ‘cordwainer’ we see in our family history occupations.
The afternoon found us sitting under cover as the clouds looked very threatening and watched a group of line dancers, followed by various acts, of the musical variety, from a circus.
The heavens opened during this performance and everyone tried to get into our little undercover space.
At 4pm we decided to go home, wet, tired but happy
We decided not to go back in the evening for the music and dancingJ.
