It wouldn't show all pages at root level, It would be your custom menu as I stated, letting you choose which pages to show.
Example 1 (Your custom menu):
Articles - Article 1 - Article 2
Example 2 (Your Custom Menu)
Could be a tabbed style menu drop-down etc.
Or any other Menu, user would know exactly where they are and it would only show on what pages you require..
But it would not show like a breadcrumbs menu NO (As it's a custom hard coded menu) UNLESS: Your menu can show active page users is on via css then it would look like>
Article -
Article 1
I really couldn't see the point of breadcrumbs that way, when it's possible as we stated.
Other then this, how the other user does it via a category for articles...
Sorry I wasn't much help.