LE BIG MAC HAS CONQUERED LA BELLE FRANCE
La Belle France: charming bistros, glorious wines and cheeses, bountiful markets, streets filled with the smell of freshly baked bread – all emblems of the greatest food culture that the world has known.
Sadly, though, that culture is now in eclipse. Twenty-five years ago, it took some effort to dine poorly in France; these days bad meals are depressingly common, and it can be tough to find even a decent baguette in some villages and towns.
Bistros, brasseries, and cafés are folding by the thousands each year. Small farms are disappearing at an equally alarming clip. Dozens of raw-milk cheeses have become extinct in the past quarter-century. Wine consumption in France has declined by an astonishing 50 per cent since the 1960s, and continues to plunge.
And there is an even more shocking statistic: France is now the second most profitable market in the world for McDonald's. La Belle France has been conquered by 'Le Big Mac'.
What accounts for the decline in France's food tradition? Economic sclerosis is probably the biggest factor. For the better part of the last 30 years, France has suffered anaemic growth, high unemployment and stagnant living standards. This, coupled with a business environment distinctly hostile to business – punitive tax rates and crippling regulations – has wreaked havoc on France's culinary industry.
It is hardly controversial to suggest that there is a link between economic and culinary prosperity. In flush times, restaurants flourish and demand for high-quality foodstuffs soars.
The gastronomic awakening experienced in Spain, Britain and the US came on the back of robust economic growth. By contrast, the French economy sputtered, and French cuisine did likewise.
French cuisine has also suffered on account of changes in the household. In recent decades, millions of French women have joined the workforce. This has been a step forward for gender equality, but it has done French eating habits no good.
In France, discerning palates have always been cultivated around the family dinner table; indeed, almost to a person, all the great French chefs of the last half-century had their interest in cooking nurtured by mothers and grandmothers.
But with two-income households increasingly prevalent, the French are cooking less than ever.
Women returning after a long day's work have neither the time nor the inclination to prepare a family meal; it is far easier to throw a frozen pizza in the microwave.
Not only are the French cooking less; they are spending less time at the table. A study found that the average meal in France now lasts 38 minutes, down from 88 minutes 25 years ago.
(From an article in the Daily Telegraph)
P.S. Whatever next - Wetherspoons in France?
I was joking - but have just read a hand out: "Another possibility is a move into France. The company is already looking for properties in Calais and Lille and will again try a cautious expansion plan.'
jenray
Pro 
depressing isn't it...pride in good cooking is rapidly disappearing, and don't think it will return now...people are just too busy and restaurants do what's quickest and cheapest...very sad...GBHs...XXX