Sacré bleu, the French will flambé our Bake Off alive Zut alors! The Great British Bake Off, possibly the most patriotic of all baking shows, has been sold to the French. A Gallic version of the series, produced by BBC Worldwide, is currently in production and will air later this year, it was announced on Monday. Victoria sponges, cream buns and lardy cakes will be replaced by croissants, éclairs and crèmes brûleés, while judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood are to be ousted by a macaroon expert and a French chef. For fans of the Bake Off, this is terrible news. We all know baking is big business, with sales of cake stands up 243 per cent at Marks & Spencer and five million viewers regularly tuning in to watch the Bake Off on a Tuesday night. Producers at the BBC can hardly be blamed for trying to export such a popular idea across the Channel. But this is one cookery show that is undeniably, categorically British. Admittedly, the series has already been licensed to six other countries, including Australia, Poland, Belgium and Ireland. Indeed, in Scandinavia, the Danish version, Den store bagedyst, is the highest-rated show in the history of the channel, TVFOUR, and the most successful new format to premiere this season. But taking the Bake Off to France is another matter altogether. The Gallic series - imaginatively called The Great Bake Off - will be filmed in a chic orangery, rather than the bunting-draped, blustery tent that houses the British version. The challenges will involve intricate patisserie and delicate meringues, in place of messy English classics such as pork pies, cheesy scones and tea cakes. To make matters worse, the series will be screened on M6, France's "teenage channel," which has previously shown French versions of The X Factor, Footballers" Wives and Wife Swap. It's just all so wrong. Judges for the French version haven't been confirmed, but the likely candidates are food blogger and macaroon-maker Jacqueline Mercorelli and chef Cyril Lignac. I'm sure Mercorelli (known as "Mercotte") and Lignac have the necessary culinary qualifications to judge the show, but it'll take more than baking nous to replicate the rapport and charisma of Berry and Hollywood. As for replacing Mel (Giedroyc) and Sue (Perkins), the producers had better have something brilliant up their sleeves. Lignac, known as the French Jamie Oliver, isn't a touch on his gruff, twinkly-eyed British counterpart, whose sternness is the perfect complement to Berry's grandmotherly advice. He owns a patisserie in Paris and has written a number of cookery books - but is also known for voicing the character of Lalo in the 2007 Pixar film Ratatouille. Grandmother‑of‑eight Mercotte, whose interest in cooking seems to date back no further than 2005, admits on her blog that when she got married she "didn't even know how to boil an egg." Berry would, quite rightly, be horrified. In ripping off such a traditional English show, the French Bake Off has missed the point entirely. For the appeal of the nation's favourite baking series lies not in the formula but the execution. The Bake Off has a peculiarly British, crumbly charm. Its contestants are genuine, the judges fallible and the whole concept rough around the edges. The cakes that come out of the ovens are far from perfect - sometimes they're dropped on the floor; sometimes they're burnt, raw inside or sunken in the middle. But no matter. The baking disasters are as much a part of the show as the triumphs. France is the "spiritual home of the sweet tooth," insists head of production Jean Louis Blot, clearly forgetting that it was us Brits who invented afternoon tea. Yet the last thing the show needs is groomed Parisians churning out perfect profiteroles on polished worktops. It needs elbow grease and tears. It needs dough up contestants" noses and flour in their hair. A smug Gallic equivalent of The Great British Bake Off, featuring fussy French creations that we haven't a hope of making at home, just won't cut it. Tonight, the four semi-finalists of the British series will get a chance to show those potential French contestants what they're made of. Rather aptly, it's patisserie night. Delicate petits fours, a sponge filled with mousse and strawberries, and a show-stopping choux gateau are the three challenges that stand between them and the final. Who needs a Parisian kitchen when you can accomplish all this in the middle of a windy field in Somerset? Hands off, France, the Bake Off is ours.