My Cantou

A cantou is a very large fireplace, traditional in older homes. It is not meant, contrary to popular belief, to have a fire so big you could spit roast an entire deer in it. No, actually the reason cantous are so big and deep is so the on very cold nights one could get in the cantou with the fire and the stone walls' radiant heat would keep you warm while you knitted or darned or whatever the hell people did back before the industrial age*. This will not stop me from attempting to spit roast a deer in it when it's all said and done.

So this is my cantou. The fireplace area is 7 feet across, 3 feet deep and 5 and a half feet tall. I am in love with this thing. The top is made up of three big, rough masoned plinth stones, like some sort of home dolmen. It's so massive that the first floor wall comes out to support it. For sizing that is a massive grandma iron stove inside the cantou. When I have finished removing that stove (called a poele) and removing the wood walls the previous owner installed inside, I will use chaux (a primitive lime masonry, much more on this later) and restore the inside. I will re-mortar the outside, but I am going to leave the stone exposed.

Then I am going to sleep inside it and dream of meat.

*Answer: Toil endlessly.