As the lights of their small bakery flicker on in the early morning darkness, Kevin and Sandrine Luce’s oven is already cranked up to 270 degrees Celsius (518 degrees Fahrenheit) to give their latest batch of baguettes a crunchy crust.
When the couple first fired up the oven in their store in Saint-Just-en-Chaussée, a small town about 90 kilometers (55 miles) north of Paris, in March, they paid 2,230 euros ($2,540) for 2,000 liters (528 gallons) of the heating oil that it burns. Last week, they spent almost the same amount on just 1,200 liters (317 gallons).
