Its been an interesting weekend (part 2)

After sailing on Friday, I really needed a quiet day with not too much food or alcohol...
Ha!
We had a long-standing invitation to a family gathering of Carol and Colins' neighbours. This used to be on the birthday of Albert, the doyen of the family, who sadly died last year. They are keeping the get-together going, as well as the yearly cider making, which will be at Toussaint this year. Family members come from Rennes, Paris, Nantes as well as more locally. Not sure how we got to be invited, but it seems to be an ongoing thing...

François and Martine (more neighbours) had recently renovated their four au pain (bread oven), which is a large structure at the bottom of their drive.  First firing in thirty years - time for a test-drive!

The oven was heated-up three times, over three days. Once the fire had died down, the ashes were raked out and the floor of the oven swept out as much as possible - this caused a problem as the broom-head kept igniting!
The local boulanger had been recruited to help make the bread dough, and loan the canvas-lined baskets in which to prove it.

Time to start loading the oven...
Using a wooden pelle each loaf was turned-out and slits cut on the top, before it was slid into the oven

everyone had a loaf to load...

 until finally a dish of water was slid into the oven. the last loaf was reserved..

to seal shut the metal door plate.

Opinions varied as to the time needed to cook the bread - some said 20 minutes, some 30, some 45 minutes. François reckoned 4 hours!

However, tractor-rides and aperitif-time rather took people's mind off the bread and it ended up rather longer in the oven that strictly necessary. A certain amount of scraping and cutting was required, but the bread inside its carbon-carapace was delicious!

everyone got a bit while it was still warm...

meanwhile, in the field, the pig continued to be turned on its spit in front of the barbecue. The spit is powered by the same motor that turns the apple-crusher for the cider making, just geared-down a bit.

The evening became more hilarious as we drank and ate and ate and drank - sang a bit, then ate some more. Pete and I staggered off in the early hours, once the tables had been cleared and the disco had started.
Fantastic evening!
Goodness knows how long it went on till...