Plenty of bread in Paris: French media deny reports of 'baguette crisis'

French media were quick to discredit a British press report that Parisians are having trouble finding bread during the month of August. The Telegraph had said that the "baguette crisis" would lead to "scenes of angered locals loitering outside vacant boulangeries."

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“This year will mark the first time since the French Revolution that boulangerie workers are allowed to flee Paris en masse during the summer holidays,” the newspaper said.

France's BFMTV and the newspaper Le Figaro denied there is a bread shortage, accusing the British press of exaggerating the situation.

Late last year the French government reversed a decision taken in 1790, during the French Revolution, which made it mandatory for bakers to notify authorities if they were leaving on holiday.

The aim was to prevent a bread shortage.

The website Buzzfeed did its own research Tuesday and found that of the 21 bakeries they visited, 11 were open. On average, it took about five minutes to find a good baguette, it said.

In fact, there is more than enough bread to go around.

“Our real issue is the customer shortage," Dominique Anract, president of the Professional Chamber of Craftsman and Bakers of Paris, told Le Figaro. “A lot of bakeries and supermarkets are open during the summer.”