A holiday for baguette-deprived Parisians?

Had Queen Marie Antoinette said “Let them eat cake” once again today, it would probably earn her the same fate in the Fifth Republic as it allegedly did in 1793, because the one thing that the French will always take seriously is the baguette, and their right to eat a freshly baked one every day. Hence, it is surprising — and probably a testament to the changing mores in Paris — that Revolution-era laws ensuring that boulangerie workers curtail their summer holidays so that citizens are never deprived of their daily bread, have been scrapped. The impending baguette crisis that will be caused by the bakers’ en masse holiday exodus in August has the potential to deflect attention from the illegal migrants’ influx that is currently exercising much of Europe. The French cannot be expected to take an even-handed view of that problem without their morning fix of crusty carbohydrate.

Though the move is said to be part of a slew of government reforms to cut red tape, many may well see it as a sinister EU-instigated conspiracy to undermine an aspect of distinct French culture, not to mention insidiously supplant an artisanal essential with standardised supermarket produce. However, since the scrapping is a fait accompli, baguette-deprived Parisians had better go on holiday too as long as the bakers are away.