Bread is the staple in France, served at practically every meal, and whenever it’s served it must be fresh, so the bakeries, or boulangeries, are an important part of French cuisine and culture.
The French take their bread very seriously, especially since the period during the 70s and 80s when the boulangeries scrapped old-style methods of bread-making in favor of industrialized baking with the result that the bread lost its flavor. But, the French came to their senses on this important issue and a law was passed in 1998 forbidding the boulangeries to make bread by machine—it must be mixed and baked on site. Locals want to find a baker they like and trust, so they can have daily, fresh-baked bread. Good loaves can now be found all over the country and in Paris there’s even a Grand Prix de la Baguette to name the best of the year.
Most boulangeries bake at least twice a day, so to get still-warm baguettes/other loaves shop before 9am or between 5-7pm, when they generally take a batch out of the oven.
Since the French Revolution the government has regulated the price of a basic baguette, and the price will be posted in the window. At most boulangeries, the least expensive baguette (often referred to as ordinaire and costing less than one euro) doesn’t reflect the full talents of the baker. To test that, try a baguette traditionelle or any of the other special loaves you see in the bakery. These other breads are lovely—tasty, crunchy on the outside but soft inside, with added nuts, cereals, olives etc.
Locals debate the merits of the many boulangeries and I’ve heard comments such as, “The bakery near you doesn’t have great baguettes, but he’s really good at the special breads. The one up the hill has excellent ordinary baguettes.” Our local baker offers wonderful loaves, such as la Campaillette Grande Siècle (using a recipe from late 1700s), le pain de campagne (country bead), le pain Campagrain (multi-grain), le pain aux fibres (with extra fiber), le pain aux cereals (another multi-grain), le pain aux olives (with olives), le pain aux noix (with walnuts), le pain aux figues (with figs). Not all breads are available every day though, so we need to check. Even these special breads are not that expensive, especially compared to prices in USA.
In September in our area of Paris, there was the first round of a special competition for the “Meilleurs jeunes boulangers de France” (the best young bakers in France), which we found an interesting way to stimulate a profession. We saw a photo of the winner (M. Millet from Val d’Oise) with an amazing array of bread creations. People believe that a baker cannot be good at both breads and pastries, so often the baker will employ another baker to make those gorgeous patisseries. At cooking school, they major in one or the other. Other majors offered (besides boulanger) are patissier, glacier, chocolatier, confiseur (pastry maker, ice cream maker, chocolate maker, confectioner).
Rod and I have fallen into the bread habit very easily, and we can tell the difference between a baguette from a boulangerie and a mass-produced one (on the baker’s day off or if the baker is away/sick then this bread is brought from a bread depot). Being picky about bread now seems natural, and we’ll miss this routine when we return home!
Over the Christmas period, when the family came to visit us here, Rod and AJ began a bread ritual: each morning they walked up to our local bakery to buy baguettes and croissants or pain au chocolat (chocolate croissant) for breakfast. Strangely, each morning a mouse attacked a baguette before it reached the house!
I always squirm when the French market comes to town, and people think they’re buying *real* French bread … when those baguettes have to be at least a day old … which a true Frenchman would say ids fit o0nly for feeding the ducks!
Actually, you shouldn’t be putting pictures of ‘Banette’ and ‘Paul’ up. They are chains, and are thus not proper bakers, merely trained cooks.
Such places should be avoided if one wants real French bread and at honest prices that help the baker, not the company.