From 5 a.m. to 6 a.m.: the baker's privilege
This is the hour of the baker. Traditionally, bakers get up early to keep to the rhythm of fermentation, and to be ready to open the bakery and accept deliveries for the café. At this time, the baker is the first person to taste their baguette as it comes out of the oven, warm and crunchy.
From 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. A buttery slice on the counter
A baguette and black coffee for the early risers, at home or the café counter. Large, buttered slices cut from still-warm baguettes compete against croissants in cafés. It's also the time when people tear the crust from the warm baguettes they've been sent to fetch, unable to resist trying a bit on the way home.
From 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.: breakfast
Bread, butter, jam. It's breakfast time at home. Firstly, for the kids before they head off to school—slices of baguette dipped in hot chocolate or milky coffee. And a slice with jam on the way to school for the kids who are always running late.
From 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.: a worker's snack
In French, casser la croûte (to break the crust) is a slang expression for eating. This practice, which harks back to the light meal needed by field workers and other morning manual labourers (like miners and factory workers) helps avoid the sudden tiredness that athletes know all too well. This snack is generally taken quickly at the workplace and is made up of bread, cheese, or cuts of meat.
From 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.: Baguette sandwich
And the baguette is the star of the show. A role that it shares with two other classically French foods: roast ham (AKA jambon de Paris) and butter. The French ham sandwich is one of the undisputed kings of French food culture. Over half of the almost 2.5 billion sandwiches sold in France every year are jambon-beurre (ham and butter).
But where does the sandwich come from? It was created in the late 18th century and is not a French invention. We owe it to Lord Montague, the Earl of Sandwich, and his love of cards. It is said that he did not want to leave his card games to grab a bite to eat. He asked to be served a meal that he could eat with only one hand. He received meat between two slices of bread, and the sandwich was born.
From 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.: bread and chocolate for a mid-afternoon snack
Before the advent of the baking industry, most French primary school children had the right to leave school for a mid-afternoon snack made up of a quarter of a baguette split open with three or four squares of chocolate in the middle. The closer you were living to the northwest corner of France, the greater the chance that the bread would also be buttered.
From 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.: toasted baguette, crostini, and tapas
If France's southern neighbors are more inclined to eat baguettes as an early evening snack, it's because it helps them wait for the late evening suppers that are customary in sunny countries. Spanish tapas, Italian crostini (small crusts, referring to toast) and toasted bread with tapenade, anchovy paste, or aioli are all integral parts of the life of a baguette.
From 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.: dinner, sauce, and cheese
In France, dinner is still the most elaborate meal of the day. It's the time of day when we gather together with family or friends, whether at home or at a restaurant. Bread is right at home at the dinner table as an accompaniment to mop up the sauce from dishes and when paired with cheese, which is not seen without bread by its side.
Approaching midnight: croutons in soup
There's one last chance to eat baguette for night owls, revelers, and artists The supper of theater actors—who fast before appearing on stage, and who are starving by the time the curtain falls—is a very Parisian phenomenon. As is gratinée à l'oignon, AKA French onion soup, a beef and onion broth with baguette croutons inside, to which grated Emmental cheese is added before the whole thing is placed under the grill.
From midnight to 5 a.m.: time for the bread to rise
It's back to the bakehouse. The baker cools their starter and watches over the baguette dough as it rises. At around 5 or 6 a.m., the first loaves come out. The first baguette is for the baker.
Vincent Ferniot
