Sitting at the cafe/bar/gambling stop off the nicely modernised square (or placette) in Villers-Cotterets, I’m munching on a beautiful, fresh sandwich as simple and perfect as French sandwiches can be.

Although it’s drizzly today, and I won’t have too much to do (for a change), I get a moment to look around me. The town is a mixture of old and new. A recent update to the square has left sleek, steel bollards protecting the pedestrians from wayward pizza delivery scooter drivers and there are very nice curved steel bicycle stands currently being filled by a couple of Kawasakis.

Next to the cafe is a fantastic fruit and vege shop with a Tannoy speaker above blasting out 70s radio into the square. No one seems to mind “Hold the Line” by Toto in this town it seems.

I don’t often get a chance to stop like this, and love it when I actually can feel my mind turning over ideas and observations. Normally my days are too full of dealing with the problems at hand and moving my body through the day from meal to meal. Stopping to think I return to my fantastic sandwich, and the wonder of bread.

People barely think about bread, though I know few people who don’t enjoy it. Even those with wheat allergies can enjoy a tasty spelt loaf these days.

But in a world of cell-phones and personal gadgetry, bread is the definition of technology. We take for granted the knowledge of grain being pummelled, mixed, kneaded, baked. Water wheels and windmills. It’s so old and ubiquitous it’s not worth pondering. But we are so lucky to inherit the gift of discovery and one would assume trial and error, that brought bread to us. We walk around and worry about our jobs and friends and love and life, and snack on a cheap bready sandwich to fill us up.

A long time ago, someone figured out how to make this thing. Perhaps they ground the grains in their teeth and spat it out. Perhaps that slurry sat for a while and happened to get a bit yeasty. Then baked on the stone in the hot sun. Was someone hungry enough at that point to eat it again or on walking by did they notice the birds found it particularly enjoyable and thought it was worth a closer look?

I’d love to be able to go back in time and see bread be figured out.

We are the sum of many thousands of years of development and curiosity. Technology stretches back to the first tools, the first prepared meals, the first dry leaves wrapped in hide to make a pillow for a better sleep. So much knowledge and time, it’s really impossible to grasp. I guess all we can do is enjoy it, and build upon it in our own way. But maybe as we bite into a soft, fresh, delicious sandwich, we can smile and think of those struggling people deep in our distant past and chew a tasty “thank you”.