Virtuoso Insights - June/July 2008 - (Page 12) Paris’ upper crust If bread is the staff of life, then Paris is the most buttressed city in the world. The French consume upwards of ten billion baguettes each year, according to government estimates, and the average Parisian noshes about one and half pounds of doughy goodness per week — a large quantity to be sure, albeit down considerably from the nearly two pounds devoured daily in the capital around 1900. The crispy, two-foot-long baguette is as iconic to Paris as is the Eiffel Tower and, indeed, bread has played an essential role in the city’s history. It was the scarcity of bread that ignited the French revolution, and in 1906, even The New York Times was pondering the “great bread Question” of what Parisians should do once a government bylaw outlawed city bakers from — gasp! — baking fresh loaves on Sundays. P 12 Virtuoso insights
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