The Villar d'Arène communal oven

The tradition of boiled bread lives on, and it's still a very special moment in the lives of the Faranchin people. For a very long time, making this bread was vital to the village's survival (the earliest written records found date back to 1450). In those days, wood was so scarce that the inhabitants had to heat the oven partly with manure. The "po bulli" survived the centuries until the early 1970s, when, because it was no longer vital, the oven, which was quite dilapidated and becoming difficult to heat, was no longer used for around ten years. Guided tours of the kiln are organized by the kiln association to give visitors a glimpse of life as it used to be. Visits available on request by telephone.