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Note added at 2003-11-26 06:50:51 (GMT)
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– Household Utensils and
Appliances
Domaine(s)
  – Équipement ménager
 
oilcloth for floors Source

toile cirée pour
parquets Source FÉM

Termium

This is just a comment about the literary sense of the phrase:
A toile cirée in France is a plastic tablecloth today. French people have always used the kitchen as the center of the home, and that is where the plastic tablecloth comes in, the formal dining room would most likely have a real cloth tablecloth. The kitchen table is where the people gather, where the family and friends gather, not only to eat, but to talk. I believe that the text means that when the bells stopped chiming, people went back to their normal, everyday life, back to the kitchen. Perhaps to talk about whatever the bells were chiming for.

That might help put us in the picture.

My first thought is of oilskins, i.e. oiled cotton rainwear, which I readily associate with everyman and his dog in Australia and NZ, and with Barbour-wearing English farmers.

Keep the Aga warm!

oilcloth:

toile cirée Larousse

cloth treated with oil or paint and used for table and shelf coverings.
Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary