Finding a fresh loaf of good bread in Paris may be about to get tougher, and not because of a change in the bread. France has just scrapped a 1790 law that required bakers to notify the government of their closing plans, and allowed the government to require that some were open every day to supply the needs of the hungry people.
Generally that has meant that during the August vacations, roughly half the boulangeries would be open, and each closed one would sport a sign identifying nearby ones that were open. But France is on a campaign to simplify regulations and cut red tape, and that one was swept away last winter.
So, this is the first unregulated summer, and reports are coming in of hard times finding an open boulangerie; one woman told TheLocal.fr that “only the bad ones stayed open.” Of course, there’s always packaged bread available in supermarkets…but as anyone knows who has compared that to freshly-baked traditional ones…there could be marches on government offices under the cry of “Let us eat bread!”
