It is one of the emblematic products of France. The whole world envies us… the baguette! The baguette consecrated yesterday by Unesco!
” The news will delight cartoonists, exclaims The cross. Especially in Anglo-Saxon countries, where we love to bite into the average Frenchman with a beret on his head and a baguette under his arm. Ironic vision of a country stuck in its traditions and resistant to modernity. Let’s be good players ! Let’s rush to the first bakery that comes along and buy this famous baguette which has been included since Wednesday in the inventory of intangible cultural heritage established by Unesco. She finds there in particular the tapestry of Aubusson, the carnival of Granville, the know-how related to perfume in the country of Grasse or the gastronomic meal. »
6 billion a year!
In fact, ” our lives are run by the wand “, quips Free Charente. ” The inscription of the baguette in the intangible heritage of Humanity is only a symbol, a nod to our art of living, a global cliché tinged with national pride. But it tells so much about our lives as the evolution of our country, exclaims the Charente daily. Like village bars, bakeries are crumbling. It closes 400 a year but that does not prevent 12 million French people from buying their bread every day and eating six billion baguettes every year. Beyond the gesture point again Free Charente, it is also an economic reference, almost a currency in its own right and a system whose slightest jolt is scrutinized. As soon as the baguette takes a few cents, it’s a national subject. To see it sanctified today as one breaks bread on the altar of tradition, as one would kneel before the eldest daughter of our gastronomy, shows to what extent it remains a religion. The baguette connects us despite our differences in consumption. Even the most famous fast-food brand bows to this French exception and releases its hamburger in a baguette. »
Covid, flu, bronchiolitis: overwhelmed hospitals…
Also on the front page: The ailments that count triple… Covid, bronchiolitis, flu is the great title of Release. ” Ninth wave of Covid, explosion in the number of cases of bronchiolitis, influenza at the epidemic stage… At the dawn of winter, see the newspaper, caregivers, exhausted and understaffed, fear they can no longer hold on. »
And Release to be indignant in the face of what he calls ” the softness from the authorities. ” It took until this week for the government to call for people to wear masks in overcrowded areas and to get vaccinated. This softness is not serious. Similarly, noting that no real progress has been made on indoor air quality in schools is puzzling. Meanwhile, hospital structures, where working conditions have further deteriorated, are struggling to overcome an epidemic of bronchiolitis. We dare not imagine the impact on hospitals of an outbreak of flu combined with the arrival of a ninth major wave of Covid. »
Ukraine, Iran, China: the courage to say no
The courage to oppose, to say no, we see it every day exclaims The Parisianin Ukraine, in China, or in Iran…
” This can be seen by observing the determination of the Ukrainians to thwart Putin’s plans. Each in his own way seems to take part in the fight by accepting in particular the danger and the deprivations imposed by the conflict. In recent days, it has been the Chinese, tired of Beijing’s catastrophic management of the pandemic and the absurdity of repeated confinements, who have taken to the streets, ignoring repression. In Iran, finally, women did not take off after the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16 (…). For two months, at the risk of their lives, women have been dropping the veil. Tehran has just acknowledged that these demonstrations had killed more than 300 people. An official figure that says nothing about disappearances, arbitrary arrests, rapes… »
As for China, Le Figaro has no illusions…” Once again, the slingshot should be mastered. The security steamroller has started and repression will take place without qualms. But the warning is serious. Demonstrations of this magnitude, in several points of the empire, had not been seen for four decades. Unbearable blasphemy, the slogans attack the chief helmsman himself. The workers claim their fed up, but the middle class too. Now, in capitalist-communist China, it is with the latter that the party has made the political contract. We ensure prosperity ; in return, she keeps quiet. Today, the pact is cracking. »