“So let us leave them there and return to our good Gargantua, who is in Paris,
most intent on the pursuit of learning and athletic exercises, and to that
good old man Grandgousier, his father, who is warming his codpiece after
supper by a fine, large, clear fire and, while his chestnuts are roasting, is
writing on the hearth with a stick charred at one end, which is used for
poking the fire, as he tells his wife and family grand stories of the olden
times.” Rabelais