Les Baguettes Sont Partout!

During rush hour in Paris, I saw copious amounts of Parisiens alike going home with their daily bread. Baguettes. Each Parisien had their baguette in hand on the metro or shoved in a briefcase like an umbrella. I even saw a baguette in the basket of a bike. Parisiens cannot return home for dinner without a heated, golden sword of dough. 

Bread carries a very specific and important role in Frech culture. Bread’s roots can be traced deep within the underbelly of the French history.  The great famine that plagued many French peasants in the 1780’s was largely due to a lack of bread, as it was the staple of any Frenhie's diet. Bread is highly regarded still, and indeed some French still carve a cross into their baguettes at dinner time before consuming them. 

But Paris has received its first 24-hour baguette dispenser. 

Like most French bakers, Jean-Louis Hecht, lived above his boulanger in Hombourg-Haut and was often bothered by angry customers looking to buy a baguette after hours in the nighttime or early hours of the morning before work. A frustrated Hecht decided to sell baguettes out of a 24-hour vending machine.

There are only two machines in Ile-de-France. One is located in Paris 19th arrondissement and the second is in the north-easter town of Hombourg Haut.

The baguettes are only partially cooked when put in the vending machine and then heated up and delivered sizzly and steaming to the customer for only “un euro.”

Hecht claimed, “It’s like with banks: before, everyone went to a teller; now everyone uses cash dispensers,” he said. “It will be the same with bread: today, everyone goes to the bakery; tomorrow, they’ll go to the baguette dispenser.”

Read the article in its entirety here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/09/french-baker-installs-bread-dispenser?CMP=twt_gu