I picked up one of these today off eBay. A brand new unused Imperia Italian Double Cutter Pasta Machine SP150. Going on Amazon for £44, I paid £16.
When I had my tea room in France I tended to cook most things from scratch, as opposed to assemble, which is what I suspect the hotel opposite me did. (Can one person prepare a three course meal for 100 covers, plus 30 or so menu ouvrier without resorting to opening packets?).
So all my bread, cakes, sauces, pies, pasties, custards usually started out with the basic ingredients. Certainly a far more time consuming process, but producing food that my loyal customers appreciated.
French people are far more interested in the provenance of their food. Mention to a burly lorry driver that the bread for his bacon sandwich was home made would always meet with an appreciative response. You just wouldn’t bother in the UK.
One area where I took a shortcut was with pasta, choosing to buy a good quality pasta instead.
Were I still in France I would be proudly rewriting menus to include my newest artisan creation, (while wondering exactly where I was going to find time in an already busy day).

Imperia Italian Double Cutter Pasta Machine SP150