McDonald's bets on baguettes to lure French - report

PARIS, July 28 (Reuters) - Fast food giant McDonald's hopes to conquer Gallic hearts and palates by adding the world-famous baguette bread stick to its menu in France, Le Figaro newspaper said on Thursday.

The food chain that first ventured into France with an offer of burgers, french fries and milkshakes at the end of the 1970s, has made concessions to critics over the years by adding salads and fruit to its offering.

Now it hopes to pander to tradition and add the waft of warm baguettes to the myriad other odours and attractions of its outlets in France.

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

Nowadays, the fast food chain was part of the everyday lives of French people and wanted to add a bigger French touch, he said.

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

French people eat nine sandwiches for every single burger they tuck into, according to an consultancy estimate, and most of those sandwiches are made with the traditional French baguette stick of bread, the newspaper said. (Reporting by Brian Love; Editing by Sophie Hares)