Antique Cutting Board - IV

Found in a village in the Rhône-Alps, this antique French cutting board was hand-carved from a single thick piece of wood, a tall rectangle with clipped corners and a squared handle bored through for hanging. Boards shaped like this lived in the kitchens of the Rhône-Alps countryside, used for everything that needed a flat surface, from bread to onions to whatever came in from the garden. The face has worn to a pale, blond wood, crossed all over with the fine scratches of a hundred years of knives. 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.