French bread and pastry shops
 

Under what conditions may a bakery in France call itself " artisan"? Thank you.

I do not have the official answer but I should think that, at a minimum, a boulangerie so named would make everything on the premises, using only basic ingredients. Nothing would be sold that was not make there and nothing would be mixed elsewhere and only baked at the point of sale.

That's true, it has to be made on site, including mixed on-site (ie, the dough can't be made up elsewhere and only baked there) and never frozen. StCirq's link also says they can't have more than 10 employees. Of course, they have some bureaucracy, have to be registered.

Christine, do you have a source for that? The link provided by StCirq says nothing about how and where the dough must be produced. On the other hand, the following article (number 1, on the left) questions the concept of "artisanat".

http://www.latoque.fr/dossiers/econo...les-66556.html

See especially:

<i> Ces fonds de commerce tiennent souvent à garder l’appellation « boulangerie » (qui exige de fabriquer le pain sur le lieu de vente) et proposent d’ailleurs un bon pain de « tradition française ». Ils intègrent à cet effet dans chaque point de vente un véritable fournil (qu’ils placent souvent à la vue des clients) et embauchent de vrais artisans boulangers. Ils font donc le choix de fonctionner en « mode artisanal » pour le pain. Mais pour la viennoiserie, la pâtisserie, le traiteur (et parfois les pains spéciaux), tout est centralisé en un ou plusieurs sites de production à dimension industrielle ou semi-industrielle. La fabrication de pâtisseries-viennoiseries, parfois revendiquée comme « artisanale », reste totalement opaque pour le consommateur. </i>

It seems that these places make the bread on the premises, but that everything else they sell can be at least partially made off site.

Thank you very much.

And never forget that the macarons sold by Ladurée and McDonald's France are made in exactly the same factory.