Rate your bread

French bread © LeFrancoPhoney La CluaszAn a country that can talk for hours about bread, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that you can rate your local bakery on a dedicated website, allobaguette.

It’s a given that a baguette is croustillant here in France. If there’s no crunch when you bite into it, it’s simply not a baguette (and I have the scars to prove it). But there’s so much more to French bread.

Baguette quality is influenced by ingredients, cooking temperature, loaf size and the cutting technique for those crusty ridges. But the broader spectrum of bakery goods is also an excellent topic for discussion in France, especially inside bakeries, where customers seem intent on discovering exactly what type of flour is used in a Campagnarde or just how many people that brioche will feed for breakfast. So it makes sense that allobaguette exists. Rate baguettes, loaves, snacks or anything else on offer at your local bakery.

The website made French TV news this week as it now offers an online ordering service. Yep, you can order your baguettes online! You will still need to go to the bakery to pick up your bread, so you’re really only saving payment time (which you’ve already lost in logging into the website). The lady on TV seemed very happy to be able to walk into her local bakery and be handed her baguettes. She made it look so simple.

I decided to try ordering online, but I soon hit a hurdle. I couldn’t find any bakeries in my area that had registered with the site (although they were all listed). I did find a registered bakery in Dunkurque!

Allo Baguette website for online bread orders

I couldn’t find anything about ordering online at that bakery, so I decided to register with the site in case it helped. Far from straightforward, the site first told me I had previously registered, then it couldn’t find my details. Eventually, I registered, but finding a bakery that takes online payments remained a mystery: logging in made no difference.

At least the lady on TV is enjoying her online bakery payments, but it looks like I’ll be handing over my cash in person for now — and tuning in to the flour discussions of the customers in front. C’est la vie français, non?

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About

I'm a technical author, journalist and writer from Australia who has been living in Europe since 2000 and exploring the world from there. My passions are writing, snow sports and travel.

10 Comments on “Rate your bread

  1. Brilliant! I’m amazed at how much the quality and types of bread change from region to region. Here in the Dordogne the bread is really amazing – sarmentine which are baguettes with forked ends and made with sesame seeds and walnuts in bread everywhere – yum! Where I lived before in the Aude it was no where near as good, even just comparing plain baguettes. Maybe I should go and do some rating!!

  2. I found our village one (eventually), but sadly although it’s there, there is no info, no one has rated it and I’m sure buying online wouldn’t work. Not the easiest site to search on, kept getting error messages when I wanted to move out of Paris!

  3. Tory, it’s amazing what a difference the regions make to the type and quality of bread! Moving from Savoie to right on the border in Haute Savoie, the local ‘Croix de Savoie’ went from having chocolate chips to sugar instead. It’s how it’s done in Haute Savoie.

    Jacqui, yes, lots of error messages! The registration process was a bit interesting to say the least. 🙂 Wouldn’t it be handy if the map markers changed colour depending on whether a bakery is registered with the site, and whether online purchase is possible.

  4. No hits here in our part of the Dordogne, according to the website. Not to worry, our artisan bakery does exist and produces all the range that we require. I like a bit of crunch, but my husband prefers a softer approach to his gums.
    I have to admit that we both like cheese topped diamond shaped rolls bought in Lidls!

  5. Lesly, I’m with you! Crunch is good, but only if it doesn’t get to centimetres in density. Lidl bread is surprisingly good! Lots of variety. They should be on the allobaguette. 🙂

  6. You have the best bakery ever, just down the road from you, Wendy.

    I long for a boule or campagnarde from the Fourre a Bois (sp?)

    I can’t eat UK Chorley Wood processed bread & make all my own at home – it’s such a treat when I come to France to eat such lovely bread.

    Lidl bread is not good – so many preservatives in it – go local, woman!!

    XXX

    I don’t seem to be able to post a link on your blog – but just google Chorelywood + bread & have a look.

  7. Now then, Sally, sliced white or brown Chorelywood, for me, makes the best bacon sandwich and I have yet to get a real toasted soldier for my softboiled eggs.

  8. Chorleywood processed bread gives me terrible bloat – half an hour after eating it I look 9 months pregnant & we’ll draw a veil over the wind……………..

    And now I’m hungry with all this talk of bacon sarnies!!

  9. Don’t worry Sally — I’m never organised enough to get down to Lidl: I’ve merely tasted their bread at other people’s houses. No, instead I stick to the grumpy lady at the nearest bakery, or the nicer bakery a little further down the road (too hungry in the morning to walk the extra distance).

    Bread is one of my favourite things in life!

  10. I know where you live!!! 😀

    The extra walk is worth it – bread is the staff of life & that bakery needs supporting for the wonderful produce.

    The extra 500M will allow you at least one extra slice with your breakfast!!