Antique Cutting Board - I

Found in a small village outside Lyon, this antique French cutting board was hand-carved from a single thick piece of wood, a tall broad rectangle with a short squared handle bored through for hanging. Boards shaped like this lived in the kitchens of the Lyonnais 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 wheat, the grain rising through it in long wandering lines with knife marks scored across the center where the work was always done. 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.