Helpful Hints from joeeze: What is the best way to store an unfinished loaf of French bread?

From the current (November/December 2006) issue of Cook's Illustrated magazine:

A. Unless you store it correctly, there's often no good way to salvage a half-finished loaf of day-old French bread; your best bet is to use the stale pieces for bread crumbs, strata, or French toast. We tried several methods of keeping our leftover French bread fresh, both at room temperature and in the refrigerator: in its original paper bag, folded shut; wrapped tightly in aluminum foil; wrapped tightly in plastic wrap; and inside a large zipper-lock bag with the air pressed out.

Two days later, the room-temperature bread stored in the paper bag was hard, stale, and inedible. The foil-wrapped bread, on the other hand, was the best of the bunch. While it wasn't quite up to the standards of a fresh loaf (the crust had softened considerably and the interior crumb had gotten slightly chewier), it wasn't half bad, especially when crisped and "refreshed" for a few minutes in the toaster oven (or for five to seven minutes in a 375-degree oven). The bread stored in the zipper-lock bag was comparable, while the sample wrapped in plastic wrap — not quite as airtight as foil — was slightly staler. The refrigerated loaves didn't fare as well: They were drier, tougher versions of those left at room temperature.

So the next time you have a bit of baguette left over, store it at room temperature, tightly wrapped in foil or in a zipper-lock bag, and don't wait longer than a couple of days to eat it.