5 Random French Baguette Facts I Just Uncovered

French baguettes—they’re the best thing since… well, you get the idea.

Name the most iconic foods of France, and you’ll definitely mention the baguette in the top five. They’re one of the most instantly recognisable foods around the world, and usually the best part of any trip to Paris.

They’re also so dangerously tasty that common logic is to buy an extra one, since you’re probably going to eat one on the walk home from the boulangerie!

I’m a big fan of French baguettes, and I recently went down the rabbit hole of trying to learn as much about them as possible. So without further ado, here are the five weirdest and most wonderful things I just learned about French baguettes!

Five Random and Wonderful French Baguette Facts

Until 2015, bakers couldn’t take vacation at the same time

Remember the French Revolution?

All those beheadings, riots, and the rise of Napoleon… These were always the most bloodthirsty (and funnest) parts of the history textbooks I had to read at school.

But would it surprise you to know that the revolution still controlled bakers’ summer holidays?

Until 2015, bakers of bread in Paris had to stagger their summer vacation time. Parisians need their daily bread, and the idea of all of the bakeries closing at the same time is the stuff of nightmares.

So, the law said that each year, half the bakers could go on vacation in July, and the other half in August.

Now that’s a well-earned baguette-away!

And it turns out that this law was first introduced in 1790! The previous year, a Parisian baker named Denis François had been killed by a mob, angry because he hadn’t opened his store.

French people love bread, folks.

The next year, the law was passed to ensure that no matter the season, there would still be bread on the city streets. If needed, the revolutionary military authority would be able to commandeer bakeries and pump out loaves for the masses… The most urgent of national emergencies.

Any baker who took vacation time outside of their allotted dates received an €11 fine every day that they stayed shut. That’s some serious dough!

But finally, in 2015, the French government decided to overturn the law. Now, Parisian bakers can take their holidays whenever they want.

And sure, that’s great for the bakers. But has anyone thought about how much angrier the French will be now if all those bakers go on vacation at the same time?

You’re playing with fire, Macron.

The baguette’s shape comes from bakers not wanting to get up early

Have you ever wondered exactly why the baguette is the shape it is?

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great shape. It’s easy to carry, easy to slice, and makes for a baseball bat substitute when in need.

And there are plenty of legends about where that shape comes from. The most popular seems to be that Emperor Napoleon I thought it would be easier for his troops to carry around in their trousers.

(I really hope that this isn’t a tradition that French waiters like to continue.)

Another myth is that the baguette is easier to tear apart with your hands, which means people didn’t need to carry knives wherever they went. So, the theory goes, baguettes were a great way of lowering knife crime.

Luckily, neither is true!

The real story is even more French. To help keep people from overworking, in 1920 the government passed a law forbidding bakers to start their shifts before 4am, or from working past 10pm at night.

Now if you’re a baker; that’s great for your sleep cycle. But it’s not so great for your bread-making. Bread takes time to bake, and dough takes time to rise… so if you’re only allowed to start your day at 4am, what do you do?

Well, you create the baguette! The long, thin shape of the loaf exposes as much of the dough to heat as possible, meaning it bakes faster.

This way, your bakery can pump out the same number of loaves in less time. Now that is French ingenuity at its finest.

You can reserve your baguette online in France

Yep. This is my favourite of the French baguette facts.

I mean, is it really that surprising? This country clearly loves bread more than most people love anything.

But for Florian Maïly, a native of Burgundy, this love was painful. “I have two passions in life,” he said. “Getting up late and fresh bread.”

The problem with these passions? They come into conflict.

Bakeries tend to be the playgrounds of early risers, and most will sell out of the good stuff (including baguettes) before the rest of us wake up in time to go.

But inspiration struck Florian when he saw a poll claiming that 92% were “terrified” of a bread-less meal. (Seriously, could we get any more first-world-problems than this? France might need to reassess its priorities.)

So in 2016 Florian decided to launch a start-up allowing people like him to reserve their baguettes online. Finally—a way to eat baguettes and also not get up at dawn!

There are baguette vending machines

Ever woken up in the middle of the night needing a baguette?

Back in the day, this was a terrible moment. It’d be 2am, and there was nothing you could do except cry and go back to sleep, waiting for the sweet release of dawn to signal the opening up of bakeries.

Luckily for lovers of midnight snacks/haters of human interaction, you can now get your baguettes from a machine.

Since 2013, a handful of cities across the country have unveiled their first 24-hour, 7 days a week baguette vending machines.

The French are eating fewer baguettes than ever!

At this point, you might be thinking that the French love baguettes a little too much. I mean, who else would have so many rules and traditions about just one type of bread.

(I didn’t even mention the laws about the length and weight of baguette! If it’s not 55cm-65cm long and 250-300 grams heavy, well… it’s not a baguette. You’re also only allowed four ingredients–flour, yeast, salt, water–and have to sell it in the same place you bake it. The rules never end!).

Rules aside, France is even trying to get the baguette recognised by UNESCO as part of their cultural heritage. The people love bread, dammit.

But!

It turns out that the French are consuming fewer baguettes than ever before. Maybe it’s to do with the demonization of gluten, or the fact that pasta is a great source of carbs too, but baguettes are getting less and less popular.

In 1900, the average French person ate more than three baguettes every day.

By 1970, that number had fallen to just one baguette per day. And these days, people eat just half a baguette on a daily basis.

Now, half a loaf of bread every day might still seem like a lot of white bread to consume. But for the French of the early 20th century, that’d basically be heresy!

The baguette is probably safe from ever dying out, though. It’s one of the most loved and easily recognisable breads from around the world, and still at the top of every traveller’s bucket list when they go to Paris!

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Love my French baguette facts? Check out my other posts on French food, as well as foodie culture!

What’s your favourite fact about French bread? Go on, tell me, I know you have one. Just fill in that comment box!