Every scratch across it came from a knife and a loaf of bread. Collected around the Rhône-Alpes, this tall rectangular board carries a short, straight paddle handle at the top, its pale face crosshatched with knife marks and dotted with a few small dark knots. Every French kitchen kept a board like it, the planche à pain, cut for the daily loaf and carried to the table with the bread, worn a little deeper with every meal. Sylvie leans it against the kitchen wall when it is not in use, and lays it out with bread and cheese when it is.
