‘If there’s one record that should belong to us, it’s this’: France tries to win back world’s largest baguette title

For the past five years, bragging rights over the world’s longest baguette have belonged not to the residents of a small village or a city in France, but rather to a clutch of bakers 500 miles away in Como, Italy.

On Sunday a crop of 12 bakers from France set out to rectify this, with plans to spend at least eight hours kneading, shaping and baking their way back to victory.

They gathered early morning in the commune of Suresnes, in the western suburbs of Paris, and readied themselves to beat the standing record of 132.62 metres – roughly the length of the arch at Wembley stadium.

Although about 320 baguettes are thought to be sold every second in France, the 2019 feat by Italy was not the first time the country has laid claim to the title of longest baguette; in 2015 a 122-metre baguette baked at the Milan Expo was certified as record-breaking.

“In Italy?” one local told newspaper Le Parisien this week as he emerged from a bakery, baguette firmly tucked under his arm. “That’s crazy. If there’s one record that should belong to us in France, it’s that one.”

The sentiment was echoed among the bakers who gathered at Suresnes’ Terrasse du Fécheray observation deck, where their record-breaking attempt was due to unfold against a backdrop of sweeping views of Paris and the Eiffel Tower.

“I hope that we’ll be able to recover the record for France,” Sylvain Lecarpentier, one of those taking part, had written in a post on social media in the lead up to the event.

In a statement publicising the event, organisers laid out the gruelling challenge that the bakers were up against. “The dough will be kneaded, shaped on site, and then baked in front of the public in a rolling oven under a tent,” it said. “It will be made according to the rules of the art, with wheat flour, water, yeast and salt as the only ingredients.”

The baguette, which must be at least 5cm thick along its entire length, is expected to take about eight hours to bake, the statement added.

Once the baguette is baked, it will be left to judges from Guinness World Records to determine whether it is enough to beat the current record. The baguette will then be cut up to be shared among the public, as well as distributed to people living on the streets of Suresnes.