French bakeries are thriving in unlikely places

On a soulless roundabout at a motorway junction, next door to a Burger King and opposite McDonald’s, stands a newcomer to the world of fast-food in France: a boulangerie, or French bakery. With ample parking, the Boulangerie de l’Ovalie, just off the A7 north of Avignon, offers its car-borne customers the staple croissants and baguettes, as well as quiche and snacks. The boulangerie is traditionally a feature of the village square or high street, part of the civic density which urbanists laud in France. Yet now, it is flourishing as an out-of-town drive-in or drive-to experience.

It is an unexpected time for the baguette to boom, let alone on the country’s urban fringes. Rising energy and flour prices have pushed the price of the humble stick over the symbolic one euro in some places. Older folk still recall the time in the 1970s when it went for one French franc. Yet in 2022 more new boulangeries opened their doors in France than closed, according to Altares, a research group. Across the country 2,538 new bakeries set up shop last year. In the Paris region, the fastest growth has taken place not in the capital’s built-up walkable centre, but its low-density outer suburbs—catering to the motorist.