France’s boiled bread festival: see the ancient rye tradition in the Alps

Making bread in France usually means flour, water, yeast and an oven, but in one French Alpine village, the recipe begins with two enormous cauldrons of boiling water. 

Every November, the mountain village of Villar-d’Arêne, in Hautes-Alpes, revives its centuries-old pain bouilli – porridge bread/boiled bread, or pô-buli in the local dialect – a dense rye bread traditionally made only once a year and intended to last through the winter.

“It is a bread made only with rye flour and water,” says Jean-Paul Albert, president of l’Association pour la conservation et l’animation du four et du moulin de Villar-d’Arêne. 

“We boil the water in two enormous cauldrons. Then we mix some of this boiling water with the flour, which creates a kind of starter. 

“We leave it to rest for several hours before adding the rest of the flour.”

It is this use of boiling water that gives the bread its name. Mr Albert says the tradition dates back to around 1428. The Parc national des Ecrins, which has documented the tradition, says the oldest surviving written records date from 1450. For generations, bread was not a delicacy but a necessity. The village’s harsh mountain environment and scarcity of wood meant that baking was an expensive and laborious business.

The solution was to bake a year’s supply at once. Traditionally, families would wait until the autumn harvest was complete, after the haymaking and milling of the rye. The whole village would take part. “It was everybody’s bread,” Mr Albert says. “The whole village participated because it was the bread they would all eat every day afterwards.”

Made from rye and boiling water, the loaves developed a very thick crust, helping them to keep for a long time. These loaves, known as tourtes, weigh around five kilos and are baked for around seven hours in the communal stone oven. They cost around €15. 

“It is no longer being done out of necessity,” Mr Albert says. “It is to maintain a tradition.” He adds that visitors are welcome to watch and participate in the process, taste local specialities and buy the famous black rye bread afterwards.

This year’s Fête du Pain Bouilli will take place from November 20 to 22.