Eric Birlouez is a sociologist, agricultural engineer and author of Short and long history of cereals and pulses (Quæ, 2022).
Why is the baguette one with our image of Epinal?
Beyond its nourishing function, the baguette is a major element of our food culture and our art of living. It was the first English and American tourists who noticed this singularity, before the French recognized themselves in it. Today, it is an identity and classified as a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage.
How did she establish herself?
There are all kinds of urban legends about it, ranging from the bread slipped into the pockets or boots of Napoleon’s grunts to the long loaf that ended the feuds between the builders of the Paris metro [ils avaient des couteaux pour couper leur pain]. With the wand, you no longer need a knife. In reality, the baguette is a bobo product before its time, born in the capital in the 19the century for a wealthy clientele who wanted fancy bread, lighter and with more crust. The first bakery treatise to use the word dates from 1904. Under the “thirty glorious years”, it became a dominant product, better adapted to the rhythms of life in cities and the bakeries of city bakers.
Our language is full of expressions with the word “bread”. Is this a French particularity?
Yes. It “sells like hot cakes”, we have a “friend”, we “eat our white bread”. We also use a lot of derivative expressions, such as “to be in trouble”, “a good dough” or an “old crust”. All testify to the importance of this food and the respect it inspires. In the 20the century, we still traced a cross on the loaves. The biblical dimension of bread, especially among Christians, is very strong, ranging from the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves to the rite of the Eucharist.
Do we magnify bread because of our culinary practices or because France is a great land of wheat?
The soil and the climate were foundational. France is a land of wheat. It was already renowned for the quality of its breads in Roman times. We very quickly opted for bread consumption of wheat, when, elsewhere in Europe, porridges or pancakes prevailed. It is also to the diversity of its soils that France owes its great variety of cultures and foods as well as the culinary practices which have founded its reputation.
Are we still bread eaters?
No. We ate more than 1 kilo of bread per day per capita at the beginning of the 20th century.e century compared to less than 100 grams on average today. But we remain very attached to good bread. This is what we miss the most abroad, ahead of wine and cheese. We eat it in other forms, in burgers and especially pizzas, where we are world record holders with the Americans.
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