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The French Post Office (La Poste) has issued a commemorative postage stamp to honour France's famous bread – the baguette. The new stamp is not a run-of-the-mill issue. Its surface is coated with tiny capsules that, once broken, release the fragrance of freshly baked bread. The €1.96 stamp depicts a baguette decorated with a red, white, and blue ribbon. A shopkeeper in the heart of Paris that sells the "scratch-and-sniff" stamp said it had a "bakery smell". The stamp was launched on Thursday to celebrate the day of the patron saint of bakers and pastry chefs. La Poste said it had an initial print run of 594,000 copies. It also said French bakers bake more than six billion baguettes every year. The baguette is very close to the hearts of French people. France's President Emmanuel Macron once described it as being "250 grams of magic and perfection". La Poste wrote about the French loaf on its website. It called the baguette, "the bread of our daily lives, the symbol of our gastronomy, the jewel of our culture". It explained why the baguette was so popular. It said: "It is the promise of a delectable sensory experience. On view, it seduces with its golden crust…Fresh from the oven, its toasted scent whets the appetite." The baguette was given UNESCO heritage status in 2022. La Poste called the bread, "an ambassador of the bakery craft". It said the baguette, "transcends borders to become an international icon".
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