The flour! That’s why my bread is bad – and the other thing he said.
‘Thesavoir faire?’ I ask.
He nods. ‘The know-how. People have trained for years to learn how to work with the dough. Without good flour and thesavoir faire, then … phfffff.’
I nod slowly. ‘So, you can help me?’ I ask. ‘If you can tell me where to get good flour, I can make good bread … with passion!’ I attempt a laugh.
He shakes his head and says flatly, ‘Non.’
Chapter 22
‘But why? I can help you! We can help each other. If people come for bread, they may come for coffee. By the sound of it, you need the money to keep yourtabacgoing just as much as I need customers so that I can stay here.’
He says nothing. I can see he’s not going to change his mind, but add: ‘I just feel I owe it to them, the names sketched on the walls, the etching of “bijou”, not to give up on the place. For it to be left to rot.’
He stops polishing again and I realise I may really have hit a nerve. ‘Don’t worry. I know you said you can’t help.’ I slide off the bar stool and pick up my bag, turning to leave.
‘And you?’ he says to my back. ‘What do you need from being here? An Instagram account, living the French dream? In an old watermill?’
My face darkens. I turn slowly to face him. ‘You know nothing about me, or why I’m here. I’m asking you to help me and in return I will help by trying to stop this whole village being shut up. I’m trying to keep the mill going, to keep it alive. I didn’t ask for insults.’
‘I apologise.’
A lump forms in my throat and I swallow. ‘I just need to make good bread.’
The three men look at Laurent, who clears his throat and says evenly, ‘The mill is important to me. It is my grandfather’s legacy. I want to see it kept for the community.’
‘Well, if I can’t get a visa, I’ll have to leave and that mill willbe sold to anyone who can pay – not just to you, toanyonewho can pay. It could become a holiday let, a second home. At least I was trying to bring it back to life for people to enjoy. I mean, look at this place.’ I gesture to the empty square, the silentpétanquepitch under the shady plane trees. ‘It’s empty. Sounds to me like you’re so busy thinking about the mill, you’re not making the most of what you’ve got.’
The three men seem not only to understand what I’m saying, but nod and agree, looking at Laurent.
‘You help me, show me how to make the bread, and I’ll give you bread for your customers. You could offer sandwiches,jambon-beurre, salade.’
‘Rillettesandwich,’ says one of the old men.
‘Poulet…’
‘Avec moutarde…’
Laurent holds up his hands.
‘Okay, okay … If you want people to buy your bread, it needs to be different. Special. It needs that extra bit of love. You have to put in the right ingredients and follow your instincts, listen to what your heart is telling you.’
He looks at me. ‘But a bakery can’t operate without good flour. You need clear spring water – the water is very important. As are the salt and the yeast. But most importantly good flour. The right blend of grains.’
‘So how do I get it? Where?’
He shrugs. ‘There are flour mills, of course, most a little distance from here.’
‘What aboutle moulin? What about the flour that used to come from there?’
Laurent looks at me and it seems he may just have let down a barrier. ‘I came back here for the mill, to try to keep it open for the community, for my grandfather’s memory. But I left it too late. I should have returned earlier, when he was still alive.It was my intention to buy it. But not everyone around here was pleased to see me back …’
‘Claude?’
He nods. ‘We have history. Our family dispute goes back to my grandparents. I can’t forgive what his grandfather did to us. I won’t. But if you are to become associated with me, if I help you, he will see it as a battle, awareven. He won’t like his customers being taken from him.’
I consider this. Right now, I can’t think of anything I’d like more than Claude being hit where it hurts. ‘You came back here for the mill,’ I say evenly. ‘And I need flour from the mill. That’s all. I don’t have to know what you mean by leaving things too late, or the family dispute you have with Claude. I’m here for a fresh start. And what I need to make that happen, is flour. Looks like maybe you have something to prove, too. Maybe this is the chance you needed as well – a chance to lay any ghosts to rest.’
