France’s iconic baguette has now been added to the UNESCO World Heritage list as an “intangible cultural heritage.” While it’s hard to think of bread as intangible, the designation actually applies to the tradition and know-how of making the baguette and the lifestyle that surrounds it.
The designation by the UNESCO panel came after a 2021 French vote on which of three candidates to submit. The other two candidates were the distinctive grey zinc roofs of Paris and the tradition of wine festivals.
France consumes about six billion baguettes each year, and billions more are eaten elsewhere, although many of them do not stand up to the ‘baguette tradition,’ with its crusty, even sharp, exterior, and chewable firm interior. By law, in France, baguettes can only contain flour, water, yeast and salt.
World-wide, the baguette is recognized as ‘French bread,’ even though it only became popular and practical with the 19th-century invention of the steam oven by an Austrian, and only got its name during the early 20th century.
And, although France as a whole has seen more of its bread sold in supermarkets with fewer dedicated bakeries, 94% of Paris residents live within a five-minute walk of a boulangerie.
Photo: at Alex Croquet’s Fou de Pain in Lille (PHeymont/TravelGumbo)
