I love French bread

A bakery in the square Alexandre Dumas

Paris_PainsGourmands-ext, originally uploaded by david_stirling.

Within three blocks of my apartment there are at least four different bakeries, three grocery stores, and a twice-weekly farmers market all offering a bonanza of baked goods, including, of course, baguettes. I have been making the rounds, sampling a new baguette from a different store each day. While it is debatable whether the "artisan" baguette is worth €0.30 more than the one in the Franprix, one thing is for sure: they are all better than 90% of the baguettes I have had in the United States. How is this possible? It's like German beer--there are only three ingredients involved, how can they turn out so different?