Would you like a baguette?

It's now been about 3 weeks since Ive been in Paris and I keep noticing things that surprise me and make me smile.
One such thing is the way French are about their Baguettes (a long loaf of bread)!

The French can eat their baguettes anywhere and anytime. So much so that they carry them around every where they go. At the supermarket, when you ask for a baguette, they give you this long piece of freshly baked bread almost unwrapped in your hand!
A French family I spent time with a weekend ago, was carrying 3 baguettes in the trunk of their car! And when we were leaving the car, the head of the family took two out and left one in the trunk. When I unknowingly asked why not take out the third loaf, I was told that it was for breakfast the next day (?!) (Somehow,this unknowing Indian girl didnt really picture a car's trunk as a storage area for bread!)

You see Frenchmen crunching on their baguettes on the streets and peeping out of their backpacks while on a run!



In my pursuit to find out the reason why such an attachment to baguette, I found this little piece of information.
"The story goes that the baguette was developed during Napoleon's campaigns against the Russians. His soldiers were told to pack extra clothes for the cold weather in the East but this left minimal space for food. The baguette was shaped so that it could be stored down the soldiers' trouser legs. The myth becomes less convincing, however, when it is known that Napoleon's armies traveled with mobile bakery units,[3] making it less likely that the individual soldier would have had to carry his own bread. Furthermore, a glance at the uniforms would dispel any remaining suspicion that the trouser legs might have had room for loaves of bread. [4] Napoleon did, however, help influence the shape and size of the baguette; in the past, there was a competition to see who could bake the longest baguette, but due to the association with excess consumption, Napoleon denoted the current length"

The slim, two-foot long baguette and its heftier cousin, pain parisian, are as much a part of Parisian identity as the Arc de Triomphe or the Eiffel Tower.
Well, I guess as long as it tastes great, I shouldnt really ask questions, about where they put it...