Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, Minister of Culture, is pleased to announce her decision to nominate the “know-how and culture of the bread stick” for inscription on UNESCO’s representative list of intangible heritage.

Three items on the National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage were identified by the Committee on Ethnological and Intangible Heritage (CPEI) as the subject of a national nomination for inscription on the Representative List of UNESCO’s Intangible Heritage:

  • The «Biou d'Arbois», a periodical wine festival, the day of the patronal feast and the anniversary of the Liberation of the city of Arbois;
  • The «know-how of Parisian roofers-zinc makers and ornamentalists»;
  • The «know-how and culture of the bread stick».

All three were in full compliance with the spirit and criteria of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. They were all supported by particularly dynamic communities, whose passion and commitment the Minister of Culture commends.

However, since France is only able to submit one national application to UNESCO for the 2021-2022 cycle, the Minister of Culture, after carefully reviewing the three draft applications, made her choice on the «know-how and the culture of the bread stick».

The Confédération Nationale de la Boulangerie et Boulangerie-Pâtisserie Française, with its 96 departmental federations, has interpreted this request. It has taken a collective approach involving all of its members.

Coming from know-how present throughout the national territory, both hexagonal and ultramarine, the baguette is an emblem of French cultural heritage. It is the most popular type of bread across the country. Its origin goes back to the long breads of the seventeenth century but its consumption was generalized during the XXcentury.

Its composition is extremely simple, comprising only four elements (water, flour, salt, yeast or leaven) but its manufacture requires a particular know-how, a hand trick that requires a solid training and a great experience. Each baker, by playing on the soil, the dosage, the kneading, the pointing (fermentation time), the shaping and the cooking, will obtain a unique baguette. There are as many different baguettes as there are bakers.

As a fresh product, the baguette implies special organizational and technical conditions: it is cooked throughout the day in small batches and its recipe varies according to temperature and humidity. Inexpensive, it is a healthy food within reach of all purses.

In France, the bakery is a privileged local business, in the city as in the countryside. However, the number of bakeries is constantly declining, especially in rural municipalities: in 1970 there were 55,000 artisan bakeries (one for 790 inhabitants) compared to 35,000 today (one for 2,000 inhabitants), often in favour of the sale of industrially produced baguettes.

The safeguard measures envisaged, notably through the implementation of awareness-raising actions with the general public, aim to curb this decline by further enhancing the craft sector. These measures will be fully supported by the Minister of Culture, in conjunction with his colleague Minister of Agriculture and Food, Julien Denormandie.

The dossier will be submitted to the UNESCO Living Heritage Entity Secretariat by 31 March 2021. It will then be reviewed by Unesco’s assessment body, which will issue its opinion in autumn 2022.

Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin recalled that at the same time as the submission of this national dossier, and without any interference with it, two multinational dossiers involving France will also be submitted to UNESCO under the heading of intangible cultural heritage:

  • Bear Festivals in the Pyrenees (Andorra, France)
  • The living culture of the fair and the art of fairground (Belgium, France).

Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, Minister of Culture: If this national candidacy were successful before UNESCO, the inclusion of this element will make it possible to raise awareness that a food practice that is part of everyday life, shared by the greatest number and of course, constitutes a heritage in its own right. »

What does the 2003 Convention cover for safeguarding the ICP?

Contrary to the 1972 World Heritage Convention, its purpose is not to distinguish between goods of “outstanding universal value”, but sometimes modest practices in which citizens recognize themselves. 

Intangible cultural heritage consists of:

  • “oral traditions and expressions” (e.g. Corsican polyphonies),
  • “social practices, rituals and festive events” (e.g. carnivals, gourmet French meals),
  • “knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe” (e.g. ethnobotany, medical practices),
  • “traditional craft skills” (e.g., crafts).

The 2003 convention emphasizes the evolutionary and living nature of this heritage.

It favours initiatives that come spontaneously from “heritage communities”. A “heritage community” is a group of people who recognize themselves in a practice, a tradition, a know-how, and who wish to commit themselves to its valorization, its transmission and its preservation.

The identification of these heritage elements on the national territory is an obligation made to the states party to the convention. In France, it resulted in the creation of a national inventory of the ICP, through which the Ministry of Culture develops a real ICP policy throughout the French and ultra-marine territories.

This year we will celebrate the 500e inclusion in the national ICP inventory.

The Committee on Ethnological and Intangible Heritage (established by order of 5 March 2012) advises the Minister on all matters relating to the implementation of the ICP Convention. It gives a assent on the dossiers to be included in the national inventory and an advisory opinion on the dossiers to be proposed for inclusion in the UNESCO lists.