Do you know what's been around the Bay Area longer than the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf, and Coit Tower? The answer is world-famous Colombo and Parisian sourdough French breads, both baked fresh daily in San Francisco and Oakland since the mid-1800s. In order to draw attention to the "French" connection, Colombo and Parisian bakeries are offering Bay Area residents a "Springtime in Paris" sweepstakes. The grand prize is a trip for two to Paris, France, which includes very comfortable business-class travel on Air France, a fabulous five-night stay at the new, plush, 4-star Hotel Walrdorf Trocadero, plus $1,000 in cash to spend any way you like.

Other great prizes include $5,200 in free groceries ($100 a week for a year, good at your favorite, participating market) and free bread for a year (coupons good for a free loaf of Parisian or Colombo bread every week for a year).

Tangy, golden brown sourdough French bread is San Francisco's culinary landmark. This unique bread originated during Northern California's Gold Rush days when French immigrants combined their hearth bread-baking skills with a natural wild yeast starter that came to be known as the "mother dough." This is a naturally-fermenting base, used in place of yeast.

Parisian Bakery was established in 1856 by one of the enterprising French bakers. He experimented with variations of this uniquely-American sour starter and developed a sourdough French bread loaf that captured the romance and spirit of San Francisco.

Each loaf of Parisian sourdough bread still requires almost 24 hours of carefully-supervised production time. Once a portion of the "mother dough" is mixed with flour, water, and salt, the bread dough is allowed to rest, or proof, for up to 17 hours.

In 1984, the San Francisco French Bread Company was formed as the parent company to the San Francisco Bay Area's finest and oldest sourdough French bread bakeries. It combined the original Parisian family operation, along with two other quality brands--Colombo, established in 1896, and Toscana, established a year earlier in 1895.