French Regional BREAD

The Parisian baguette, crisp, golden and fragrant, is the best
known and most iconic of all French loaves. But every region
of France, and virtually every town and village, boasts its
local speciality. The range of French regional breads is vast,
including such evocative names as le pain brié du Calvados,
le pain plié de Morlaix, le chapeau du Finistère, la fouée
de Touraine et d’Anjou, le tordu du Gers et de Gascogne,
le portemanteau de Toulouse, le seigle de Thiézac, la fougasse
du Midi méditerranéen, la michette de Provence, la main
de Nice, le pain de Beaucaire, le pain bouilli des Alpes,
le sübrot d’Alsace, le cordon de Bourgogne, la tabatière du
Jura, le pain polka, among many others.
For a true appreciation of these breads in all their rich variety,
we can do no better than listen to the words of those who
bake them. It is these craft bakers from all over France who lie
at the heart of this book. As they refl ect on their historic craft,
on the part that they play in their communities, and on the
traditions and secrets of their bakeries, their love of their work
and of their bread shines through with an almost religious
devotion; there is something of the intimacy of the confessional,
meanwhile, in their stories of their working lives, and of their
nightly vigils alone with their dough and their ovens.
Mouette Barboff holds a doctorate in social ethnology from
the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in
Paris. She is internationally recognized for her work on bread.