Oui, oui, pass me the macaron now pass me the baguette! This is overwhelmingly delicious yet borderline exhausting for our waistlines. So, yesterday was Macaron Day, now Baguette Day! But when you are French, this is chaque jour because baguette is a core staple of the French diet! According to l’Observatoire du pain [2017], 320 baguettes are eaten every second in France, and 10 billion in total consumed every year. This has us questioning, what diet? With this stat, there’s no way anyone in France can stick to their diet.
Well, not all French bread or baguette are created equally. Have you ever bought a French bread from a local supermarket that was so hard that it could have been used as a weapon?
Back in the early 1990s, the French government passed Le Décret Pain, stating that traditional baguettes have to be made on premises they are sold and can only be made with four ingredients: wheat flour, water, salt, and yeast.
So we came up with options to celebrate this day:
image via Moulin [IG]
image via Social Food
image via Moulin [IG]
Culture and Language Tip:
When you visit la boulangerie [bakery]…
Bonjour! Je voudrais une baguette s’il vous plaît. > Hello! I would like a baguette please.
And always say ‘merci’ [thanks] and au revoir [goodbye] after.
So the next time you choose from “traditional,” “rustique,” “campagnarde,” “forestière” or “ficelée,” make sure your baguette passes the test of look, feel, sound, and definitely taste!
[Disclaimer: Eating baguette can cause addiction after one bite.]