What a nice meeting!
Obviously, as I progress in my search for the unusual in the Grand Ouest, I discover events and places that are... unusual! It's only natural!
And, sometimes, I also have the pleasure of meeting people who are no less unusual!
And this is definitely the case with Dominique Grandjouan, who describes himself as a peasant baker, a description to which we must also add author and actor! It's the story of someone who, with logic and determination, follows through on his convictions... take a look...
Peasant baker...
First, he farms and grows wheat.
So far, so normal... but no!
In the spirit of going back to his roots, the wheat he grows is an ancient variety, whose names are little known today! Ten varieties coexist and help each other in his fields. (At the same time, his wife raises horses... who appreciate his straw and wheat bran! Complementarity!)
Next, he stores his wheat, which goes on to the mill, with a stone millstone that preserves the wheat germ, a mill he has restored...
What happens next? Then we come to the baking process, and the oven. There must have been an oven, since the farmhouse is around 200 years old... but it was gone! So, 3 meters long, 2 meters wide, with a teardrop shape... He built it himself!
And what about baking? He brings the oven up to temperature, by burning wood in it for about 1h30, which brings it to 300° (with a little "trick" to make sure it's at the right temperature... he'll explain on the spot!).
And off we go! And wait about 45 minutes! And here's a bread whose production process has respected ancestral know-how from start to finish... a sourdough bread, with all its qualities of taste and pleasant flavor, with a crunchy crust, and which keeps much longer than bread made with chemical yeast.
Bread is about sharing. With this in mind, twice a week, our farmer-baker has set up a sales area for strictly local products from his neighboring producers!
Author, actor
Dominique Grandjouan doesn't stop at sharing bread: once a month, he also shares convivial moments of exchange, during which we'll start by tasting, of course, his breads, with a few accompaniments... and then we'll move into a small room, to enjoy the bouncy humor, the words that twirl in an oral ping-pong, of a play he wrote himself, and which he performs in the company of a friend. And it's not sad! And spectators couldn't be more immersed in the show than in this small 35-person room!
It's called the "Théatro'fournil".
I asked him if he was tempted by larger venues, even though I already suspected the answer... no, his small venue, and the spectators so close, is better!
Above all, if you're in the area, find out more and go for it!
People like that, moments like that, aren't even unusual anymore: they're rare!
The "Théatro'fournil
Dominique Grandjouan
Mondalin
44320 Saint-Viaud
Tel: 06 63 06 05 16.
http://www.painpaysan44.sitew.fr/
Click on the image
Click on the image
