Les Charbonniers de surface

Yesterday, it was the Spanish. Today, there are Moroccans, Portuguese and French… and their job is a strange one. In the heart of the Bessède forest, near Belvès in Dordogne, they continue the trade of charcoal burners. From sunrise to sunset, these men and women, with the blackened faces of underground miners, are busy making charcoal in enormous metal cauldrons. The work is hard and carries on regardless of the rain, heat, the smoke and gases that leak out of the huge ovens. The dusts stings and irritates the throat, is inhaled into the lungs and gives rise to illnesses.