Bread And Road Names

Homage To Bread

One of the pleasures of being here is the easy access to very good bread. There are two bakers in the village who bake their own bread and many alternatives in nearby Buis, Entrechaux and Vaison, several of which style themselves specialists in one way or another. Most seem to have just two doughs for the general run of bread, one for white bread and one for wholegrain, but the variety of crusts they produce is extensive. Then of course there is bread with olives in it, the local fougases, and bread with nuts in it. It is a reason I usually eschew the classic French breakfast of croissants or pain au chocolat and buy a fresh crusty loaf to have with jam or honey. My current favourite is a pain de campagne from one the village bakeries which seems to keep its crustiness the whole day. I haven't yet found an exact equivalent to the granary bread I used to enjoy in England, with it's good crust and soft interior; wholegrain breads here tend to be dense. But that is a small quibble.

Although locals use such fillers as couscous, rice, pasta and potatoes to a considerable extent, bread still seems to be the standard at every meal. I know that if I invite friend Daniel for a meal I always have to have bread to hand, even though he doesn't eat cheese (has a lactose allergy) and even if the meal is a shepherds' pie.

Road Names

I've mentioned in an earlier posting that all the streets in the village and those around it have now been given official names. All those I am aware of are reasonable. A lane near my house that runs under the chateau is now officially but unimaginatively the Chemin sous le Chateau. Friends Steve and Jo were previously at a loss when trying to effect a transaction online which insisted on a street address, when their road had no offical name, and so invented whatever they thought might be appropriate. It is now, very reasonably, the Route de l'Ancien Chemin de Fer, which is what it once was. But what did locals know it as before the railway became along, because there was a previous road that wandered along and across the railway track? The address on their house deeds record it as Au Bout du Cros, which is not actually the name for a street but for an area: a “cros” is an old French term for an area where sheep were grazed. So why not Sheep Lane, or Walking Pullover Lane, which somehow sounds more picturesque to me? I think we are losing the chance to add some former ribaldry and colour to road names, which means the Bowdlerisers and political correctness crew are winning, and that should never happen.

The one good example I can think of in the village is the Passage Tire-Cul, which roughly translates as Drag Your Arse Up passage. And the name is not only colourful but also very apposite since it is a narrow and very steep passage of steps. In London there is still Pudding Lane, Old Jewry, Primrose Hill and Poultry but Magpie Alley and Hanging Sword Lane have gone: and I'm sure there was once a Gallow's Hill. Love Lane is still there and in the City, implying the financial transactions that gave rise to the name, although there may not have been much love involved. Even Haymarket is redolent of its past. But London also has Trafalgar Square which might more relevantly be named Pigeon Shit or Pigeon Bomb Square. I wish, when road naming has to be done, the people responsible would overlook the boring famous people and places that are usually the source, use more imagination and delve into the sites history to find something colourful. Playing safe is too easy and militates against the joys in life. So what if some people are offended? Some always are and are probably going to find a reason to be offended anyway.