When we moved into this ancient house 10 years ago we lived in the 'modernised' end, built c.1835. The kitchen was a conventional mix of french and english 70s-80s styles [ previous owner was English too]. Conventional european cabinets, halogen hob, electric oven, china sink, built in washer/diswasher/microwave, ceramic tiled worktop/counter. Then we started the remodel of the older end of the house, built 1669. It had been converted sometime in the past to a stable for percheron draft horses, but many of the old domestic arrangements remained. Cooking was done over an open fire, using a thing that looks like a suspended saw with big teeth. This allowed a pot to be raised or lowered over the charcoals to control heat, and we still have it for show. There was no chimney inside the house, smoke sticks to a wall once it impinges on it. The 'stack' starts in the loft with a corbelled-out stone built 'hood'. From the roof angle of 51 degrees, I'd say the original roof was thatch. We also discovered a crude 'oven' in the hearth wall- it had been infilled with stonework but was still full of charcoal, and looks like a mini pizza oven, you just lit a barbeque fire in it, heated the stones, brushed out the ash and cooked. We also had a bread oven in the garden, a much larger version of the above type. Sadly the old brick roof arch had collapsed, but there are many still existing locally. These are big, perhaps 10 feet x 15 feet with a roof over, working space inside and a roof over all. The oven is about 5 feet in diameter. Fuelled by bundles of twigs. Unlike today, bread was baked in huge batches and eaten over many weeks, stale as a brick. That is why, even today, the french dunk their bread or toasts in their coffee at breakfast! Every large village had a lavatoire, a large communal covered area with a stream running through it for washing clothes. Soap was a mix of animal fat and lye.
My neighbor's house is older, [mid 1500s] and has a carved granite sink set in a wall, with a shelf for a pitcher. Sadly, it seems that most of the original owners of our little hamlet of 4 houses would have been considered bourgeoisie, and 15 of them in our commune were garotted in the Revolution.
