I would actually disagree. A typical characteristic about "food in the place it's famously from" is that the _median_ level of quality is quite high, and particularly in the case of anything involving bread - that it's fresh. The case of pizza in NYC is the same. There are certainly places selling shit pizza and shit croissants to tourists, but even in a fairly popular tourist hotspot it will likely be very freshly made and of surprisingly good quality. Even the bottom of the barrel (a $1.50 pizza near Times Square or Paris train-station chain boulangerie) is above the best thing you can get in countless countries around the world. Don't get me wrong, I'll happily go in search of The Best of whatever, but if just pick a place at random, it probably will be surprisingly good.
Legally, to even call yourself a boulangerie in France you must bake your goods on site, make the dough from scratch, ferment yourself, shape everything yourself... that alone guarantees a certain floor of quality: https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/codes/article_lc/LEGIARTI0000... There are in fact quite strict laws about boulangeries in France... since a law in 1790 they are not even allowed to pick their own vacation days!
That's more a question of taste, IMO. I found most pizza in the US to be way too greasy and sugary and salty for my taste; but that's what the local tastes expect.
Like many people, I like baguette and I don't like whole bread (especially levain-based). Baguettes aren't for show/tourism, it's a staple of french food. It does mean you want to buy it on the day, which is fine for many people.
> Baguettes aren't for show/tourism, it's a staple of french food
Indeed. So much so it's often a pain to find good whole bread outside cities.
I was being a bit facetious.
More seriously, the issue with baguette / white bread, aside from drying very fast, is that it's rapid-absorption carbohydrates that are not very healthy and not very filling. Add jam and you have it all. Taking white bread for breakfast every day is not a very good habit. It increases the risk of having a crash in the middle of the morning and of making you nibble.
For this reason, it's a shame it's so spread. Bread used to be whole in France in the past. White bread and baguette appeared in France only at the end of 19th / beginning of the 20th century apparently. So, it's been a French staple, but only quite recently.
Of course I won't argue with taste. Especially that I understand both "sides" here. I used to prefer baguette / white bread and now I largely prefer whole bread (and like anything whole, you should buy it organic; if you don't, white bread might still be the lesser evil). It took some time to get used to whole bread. I still like the taste and the texture of white bread very much, but I don't like the consequences.
it's a bit harder, but if you find a local walking out of their home, and pass 6 or 7 boulangeries until going into one, you're probably at a good one (or at risk of a stalking accusation)
Not my experience with bakeries in rural France, which I have more experience with than Paris. I’ve spent much more time trying these things in rural France than in Paris. I can say that Nice was good though
It’s much easier to find better bread and cakes in Germany even in cities
In France, most of it is quite poor quality, rural or city
Not really true. Most locals in most places will have opinions about the bakery you should go to and which one you should avoid, even if that means going to the next village over. Even if that means having to schedule because the good bakery is only open twice a week.
In my experience, the "bad" bakeries are on par with the average bakery in the rest of Europe (at least in countries that do not have a strong bakery culture): they're _fine_, but "fine" isn't really good enough for a such staple of food and culture. Of course, some bakeries are particularly bad and much worse than "fine".
Yes my French grandparents had to walk a long way to the next village every morning for actually good bread, but that bakery had to shut down because, ironically, the baker was allergic to flour. I will never forget the amazing bread from those first couple times I visited, and I thought it just meant the French bread was amazing. But no, when I come now, they get the bread from the convenience store in their village or from some other bakery, and it actually sucks.
