Shortage of butter chills France's patisserie-loving soul

Paris

THERE can arguably be no greater threat to the French way of life than a lack of butter.

For months France has been gripped by a slow-burning panic that it is running out of the golden ambrosia, which is the base of croissants and pains au chocolat as well as the whole mouth-watering panoply of French patisseries.

Supermarket shelves have been emptied of butter as shoppers worry they will have nothing to put on their breakfast tartines of toasted baguette, while worried bakers fear a "croissant crisis" as prices spiral.

"We always loved butter, but we never knew how much," sociologist Remy Lucas, who specialises in people's relationship with food,…