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Ille et Vilaine, Brittany.
This oven was probably built between 150 and 200 years ago, according to the residents of the farm. Though used regularly today it has past a period of 40 years disuse within memory.

The current residents of the farm are direct descendents of the original inhabitants.

The vaulted bake chamber.
The hearth brick have long since desintigrated, leaving a floor of compact clay an ash.

Fagots are used to bring the oven up to temperature.

The owner of the farm is a retired charcutier, and so never uses the oven to cook bread, but almost exclusively meat dishes.

The granite door is rolled into position. The embers are left inside the bake chamber.

The stone is roiled in front of the opening on small sectioned of steel tube, seen to the right.
Clay is used to seal the opening.