Let them eat brioche – on certain dates

Saturday's national holiday celebrates 14 July 1789, when revolting Parisians stormed the Bastille fortress. Queen Marie-Antoine reportedly said that of the masses deprived of bread: "Let them eat cake." In fact, she said "brioche", which is entirely different. In fact, she probably never said it at all.

Nevertheless, the French Revolution resulted in over 200 years of strict regulations on Parisian bakers. This summer is only the fourth they can take holidays as they please – until 2014, their closing dates were tightly controlled to ensure bread shortage did not result in public disorder over the summer break.

Cocorico for French victory

The symbol of the French football federation and other national sports organisations is a cockerel. This dates back to ancient times, when the Gaul tribe and poultry shared the same Latin name – Gallus. Les Bleus are therefore the only team wearing a jersey decorated after a Roman pun on farm animals. Should they win the World Cup, French media will predictably use the standard headline applied to trumpet any French victory: “Cocorico!” (which translates as “cock a doodle do”).

Wine scandal

France is currently the scene of the biggest food-labelling fraud outrage since the horsemeat scandal. Investigators have uncovered millions of wine bottles labelled as French while their content was in fact Spanish – and cheaper. Sacrebleu! Heads will roll.

Cheese luggage

French airports have unique safety instructions.

Biogas

The French gas network has connected around 50 farm-based anaerobic digestors to the national grid in the past three years. The country has a national target of 10% of network gas from farm or food waste by 2030.

Escargot

The French eat an estimated 30,000t of snails every year, according to industry figures. They only produce a fraction of that and the rest is imported from northern and eastern Europe, including Ireland.

Migrant oysters

Millions of oysters travel back and forth between France and Ireland every year to make the best of both countries, water quality, temperature and disease risk. A common oyster farming system is to breed in France, fatten in Ireland and finish in France.

Lamb, beef and whiskey

Despite difficulties in the red meat market in recent years, France remains Ireland’s top lamb export destination and its second beef market after the UK, taking in 52,000t last year. It is also the third-largest buyer of Irish whiskey.