Every scratch across it came from a knife and a loaf of bread. Collected around the Rhône-Alpes, this long board carries a small rounded handle drilled to hang, its rounded corners and dark, deeply worn face crosshatched from end to end and still dusted pale where flour settled into the grain. 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.
