PARIS — It is more French than, perhaps, the Eiffel Tower or the Seine. It is carried home by millions each day under arms or strapped to the back of bicycles. It is the baguette, the bread that has set the pace for life in France for decades and has become an essential part of French identity.
On Wednesday, UNESCO, the United Nations heritage agency, named the baguette something worthy of humanity’s preservation, adding it to its exalted “intangible cultural heritage” list.
The decision captured more than the craft knowledge of making bread — it also honored a way of life that the thin crusty loaf has long symbolized and that recent economic upheavals have put under threat. UNESCO’s choice came as boulangeries in rural areas are vanishing, hammered by economic forces like the slow hollowing out of France’s villages, and as the economic crisis gripping Europe has pushed the baguette’s price higher than ever.
“It’s a good news in a complicated environment,” said Dominique Anract, the president of the National Federation of French Bakeries and Patisseries, who led the effort to get the baguette on the UNESCO heritage list. » | Catherine Porter and Constant Méheut | Wednesday, November 30, 2022
LIRE AUSSI CET ARTICLE EN FRANÇAIS À CE SUJET :
« L’inscription de la baguette au patrimoine de l’Unesco est une effroyable régression » : Auteur de nombreux ouvrages sur le pain, l’historien Steven Kaplan regrette que l’on célèbre un produit générique, déjà en perte de vitesse sur le territoire, créant selon lui une confusion entre des pains qui n’ont rien en commun. »
BBC News report on the story here.
