>>> When I was a wee tad around 1940 my family normally bought bread
>>> at a neighborhood bakery, and it would be unsliced unless you
>>> asked for sliced. The bakery had a machine that fascinated me by
>>> cutting an entire loaf into slices at once.
>>
>> Our nearest mini-supermarket still has one of those.
>
> So does our local bakery. Probably that just reflects the fact that in
> France (and doubtless Belgium) sliced bread is nowhere near as popular
> as it is in English-speaking countries. Sliced bread is definitely
> regarded as inferior for most purposes and is only sliced in a real
> bakery if you want to spread foie gras on it, and then it's sliced at
> the moment you buy it, not before.

From what I can recall of my youth in Belgium, sliced bread was far more
prevalent than it is in France, with sandwiches ("tartines") being made with
it, as opposed to the French baguette. I remember the local bakery
machine-slicing the loaves as they were sold. This in the 1960s.

Chris R