McDonald's Adding Baguette Stick Bread to Menus in France

Since the French prefer a sandwich on the bread from a baguette stick over an American-style hamburger, McDonald's is changing its menu in France. The American-based fast food chain is adding the traditional French-style baguette bread stick to its menu in that country, hoping to show it's not all about American hamburgers.

McDonald's opened its first restaurants in France at the end of the 1970s, initially taking its traditional offering at the time of burgers, fries and milkshakes and soft drinks to that country. The company adjusted its menu over the years in response to French criticism, adding salads and fruits to the menu before it had expanded with such items in the U.S.

McDonald's addition of the classic French baguette bread stick is another move in the direction of making the company's restaurants in France more specialized for local tastes.

"For the first 15 years, from 1980, what we did above all was offer people a slice of America," said Nawfal Trabelsi, senior vice president for McDonald's operations in France and southern Europe, in an interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro.

Now, Trabelsi said, McDonald's wants to add a French touch to restaurants in that country.

"The French are passionate about bread and crazy about baguettes," he said.

The newspaper reported that French people eat nine sandwiches for every burger they eat, and most of those sandwiches are made on the traditional French-style baguette stick of bread.