Saturday, November 03, 2012

Come into my garden

This inviting garden gate in Le Grand-Pressigny caught my eye. It's on the rue du Four Banal (Common Oven Street), which is a rather steep street that leads up to the castle. Back in the days when people didn't have a lot of appliances, they would take their covered dishes to the common oven for baking.

I'd love to see inside the garden. It's small, but I'll bet it's worth a peek.

There's a rue du Four in Saint-Aignan as well, but the actual four banal (common oven) no longer exists. When I was a student in Paris back in the middle ages (ok, it was 1981), I lived in a boarding house on the rue du Four in the Saint-Germain neighborhood.

6 comments:

  1. "Communal" would fit better than "common" in this instance, Walt.
    Pre-revolution the lords of the chateau ran this one and kept it fired up... and taxed the villagers to use it!
    When you next visit, take time to look at the display inside... there is a lot of information round the walls on the feudal way of baking.
    These metal gates [and some of the wooden ones] are so much part of France... and a great testament to the makers. There is a beauty in Petit Pressigny... rusty on the surface... polished by use where it is held on opening and shiny on the handle. It still has the maker's cast-iron 'advertising' signage on it... there is a picture of it on my flickr space in the "Village of Petei Pressigny" set.
    We have floods here... what's it like up your end?

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  2. We've had 38 mm of rain over the past 48 hours.

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  3. Hey, I lived there, too, Walt! I wonder if we ever crossed paths? :))

    Yow, those early episodes of Ab Fab are sooooo fab :))) I haven't seen the 20th-anniversary episodes.

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  4. Walt

    There is a very good and inexpensive pharmacy in Rue du Four in the Quartier Latin. Load up on Klorane and other soaps when I go to Paris.

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  5. We have been into the little garden, it is as you say, worth a peek !!

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  6. It must be rather confusing when one goes to another town and the streets (which all have the same names) aren't in the same order.

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