LIVING IN FRANCE — French farmers feel the pain of cheap baguettes

Leclerc the giant supermarket chain is selling cheap baguettes. Really cheap, like 29 centimes. Compare this to the 1 euro I shell out for a basic baguette from my village boulangerie.

French farmers aren’t happy about this. Everything that goes into making a baguette is expensive, they explain, and they can’t afford to stay in business when Leclerc undercuts them.

Cheap baguettes are robbing them of their dignity, they say.

The last time French farmers felt robbed of their dignity, was about a year ago. They protested by blockading the autoroutes with tractors and cows.

French winemakers aren’t feeling much joy either. If frost-damaged crops and global warming aren’t bad enough, they also have to contend with cheap Spanish wine pouring into France by the truckload.

I live in the Languedoc, one of the largest wine-producing areas in the country. A few years ago, a group of winemakers, angered over unfair competition, donned black balaclavas, broke into a large brokerage, set off a few Molotov cocktails and burned the place down.

Not sure if Spain got the message.

If not, French winemakers have other tricks up their collective sleeves. Like the longstanding tradition of dumping cheap plonk along the autoroute.

No info on whether they might have encountered the farmers’ cows.

Last but not least in the roundup of unhappy farmers are the heliciculteurs.

Snail farmers to you and me.

Sales are sluggish, I guess. Sorry.

Blame Covid for the lag in escargot enthusiasm.

I guess a runny nose and a hacking cough doesn’t exactly say, ‘oh yes please, what I really fancy is a nice slimy mollusc.

Still, I haven’t heard of any escargots producers blocking the autoroutes . . . could be that the snails just haven’t arrived yet.

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