Rural French Bakeries Are Closing at a Rate Locals Call "A Tragedy"

The image of French citizens clutching baguettes as they walk home from work may be a stereotype, but it’s one based in an undeniable fact, that bread is deeply important to the nation’s culture and daily life. But as a New York Times piece notes, while bakeries within major cities like Paris continue to thrive, the country’s rural breadmakers are going out of business — and locals aren’t happy about it.

“Without bread, there is no more life,” Gérard Vigot, a resident of La Chapelle-en-Juger, told the Times. “This is a dead village.” The village lost its bakery in 2017, and Mayor Nelly Villedieu did her best to replace it, hiring a worker to spend 30 hours a week delivering bread to the village. That wasn’t sustainable, however, so the town spent about $144,000 to buy the building that houses the old bakery, and they’re currently looking at buying a used oven and other baking equipment.

“In the French spirit, for a long time, we had to provide bread,” Villedieu said.

However, some of the townspeople aren’t impressed by the progress, protesting outside the old bakery’s location to express their concern with how slowly the mayor’s office is moving on the issue. “We consider the bakery a municipal service,” Nicolas Bourdier told the publication. “We feel that it’s something that’s owed to us.”

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