Antique Cutting Board - VI

Found in a small village outside Lyon, this antique French cutting board was hand-carved from a single thick piece of wood, an extra large rectangle with clipped corners and a long squared handle, big enough that it takes two hands to move it. Boards shaped like this lived in the kitchens of the Lyonnais countryside, and one this size was for the bread, laid across the table so a whole loaf could be cut and passed down the length of it. The face is scored deep in every direction from a lifetime of knife work, the wood worn back to a soft pale wheat. Sylvie leans it against the wall behind a bowl of grapes, or lays it flat with a round of cheese and a small knife on top.