Thinking Allowed: Au Revoir France

Aurora gave a lovely presentation about bread in France so instead of talking about all the fun we had in Avignon for the rest of our trip I am going to try and repeat some of the interesting parts of her presentation. With some extra details added because her presentation was so interesting it made me want to learn more.

Bread has always been very important to the French. It was thought that gluten was important for health and the more of it you ate the better. As such bread was a staple part of the French diet. It is estimated that a French adult would eat two to three pounds of bread a day. Bread was so important that in 1790 laws were made dictating when bakers could take holiday to ensure there was always someone baking bread (this law still is in practice). Some speculate that bread was also indirectly the cause of the French Revolution. Here is a law from the 1793 convention "Richness and poverty must both disappear from the government of equality. It will no longer make bread of wheat for the rich and a bread of bran for the poor. All bakers will be held, under the penalty of imprisonment, to make only one type of bread: The Bread of Equality." There are a lot of anecdotes on how the baguette came into existence, my favourite still being the one about Pierre Lafont that I made up, but runner up, a tale of escalating violence in dark alleys leading to the creation of a bread that did not involve the need to carry a knife. So, I guess the baguette is a bread of non-violence as well as equality.

Even today where the French diet involves much more than just bread, France still has the highest density of bakeries in the world. There is a law in France that every village must sell bread. If there is no bakery there will be a store or location that takes on the role of 'depot de pain.' The bread decree of 1993 states that baguettes (and all bread too) have to be made on the premises they are sold and can only include wheat flour, salt, yeast and water in the ingredients list. They are never allowed to be frozen at any stage and any preservatives are strictly forbidden. There are specific laws regulating the standard weights and size of different french breads. There are specific laws specifying the required ash content in different types of flour. Given the quality and availability of bread in France seems like creating laws regarding food quality and availability is effective. It has been great living in a country where bread is law and where pain au chocolate costs less than an apple.

Just in case you are not convinced I am including a short essay Tova wrote convincing people to move to come to France. Meanwhile, we will be putting on toques and replacing our baguettes with bagels.

Yum Yum! Look at all those cheeses.

Oh, and those croissants! Look at that Macaron.

This is the right place for me!

Actually, it is also for you. What is this place?

You're right! It's France.

If you want to go you don't need to know French. Some people speak English too.

You can tell your family members and they might come too. It's that good!

A nice temperature. If you don't want a car there's trains to take you around.

What you want is France. Love it and you'll like it!

by Tova