Independent, 3 towns/4 bakeries, + SuperU, e-Leclerc, Carrefour once, and one Artisan bakery in Paris.

The one in Paris was by far the best, but it was bio levian and a pain complet. So that was kind of not fair to the others, but it's the only one that had a real depth of flavor. They were excellent loaves, and I wish I could have had more. (but I only walked past it once, and there's only so much bread you can eat before it goes stale)

Second best has been a Leclerc, surprisingly good. Good crackly crispy crust, good structure in the center. Nice mix of lacy holes and structure. Not just a fluffy almost pain de mie with a leathery crust.

Third best has been another one of the big supermarkets, probably SuperU. They have a coupage or something like that that is probably a very high hydration that's made into a sheet, then cut lengthwise into baguette shapes.

The independent bakeries all seem to have pretty much the same baguettes, they're not great, better than your average store bought bread, but the crumb and structure are far too uniform to be anything other than a mass process.

It's almost as if they're getting the same flour and have pretty much the same process and equipment. Yeah, it's good compared to plastic bagged sliced bread, but I'm comparing it to what I've made and eaten, and I've seen better.

This reminds me of Brussels, a lot of "independent" bakeries basically get either frozen or already baked bread delivered early morning from somewhere else, probably a big bakery that exists on the outskirts of the city that does industrial size quantities.