bleu de travail

Les Bassacs has been bathed in warm spring sunshine for the last two weeks which has meant that David and I have had no excuse to avoid starting getting the houses ready for our start in May.  This is my favourite garb for working in - my bleu de travail - now 25 years old and comfortably ill-fitting.  Bleu de travail or bleu de chauffre are the traditional workman's cloths in France.  In the 19th century the colour was produced by la "Guesde" or woad. They were developed to be a garment that could be worn safely by workers, without extraneous pockets that could be caught in machinery and that could be boiled to clean them.  In France the word "bleu' is associated with getting ready for work as in 'On passe notre "bleu" pour aller au travail' and that is indeed what David and I have been doing for the last couple of weeks!