Paris, May 28 (IANS/EFE): The "boulangerie", the bakery, is perhaps the only small business that has not suffered economic crisis in France, where there are more than 30,000 across the country, 3,000 of them in Paris.

Professional bakers are socially esteemed, far beyond the category of tradesmen which has labelled them for decades.

It's a profession that gets its start at the "Ecole de Boulangerie" of Paris, from which 500 students graduate each year, not an amateur among them, eager to take part in the profession, many with the idea of opening their own business.

Bread is much more than food in France - 95 percent of French people go to the nearest bakery at least once a day, 80 percent of the time to pick up the famous baguette, so indispensable for its shape, its practical use and "also the presence of the artisan baker it emanates", Sorbonne University professor Gilles Fumey said.

Bread, documented as a basic element for humanity's survival since prehistoric times, is today a social element and a reflection of the cultural identity of each country, an idea most fully expressed in France, home of the baguette.