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The French Post Office (La Poste) has issued a special postage stamp to honour the baguette – France's famous bread. The stamp is no ordinary issue. It is coated with tiny capsules that release the fragrance of fresh bread. The stamp shows a baguette decorated with a red, white, and blue ribbon. A Parisian shopkeeper who sells the "scratch-and-sniff" stamp said it had a "bakery smell". The stamp was launched to celebrate the patron saint of bakers. It had an initial print run of 594,000 copies. La Poste said French bakers bake more than six billion baguettes every year.
The baguette is close to the hearts of French people. France's president once described it as being "250 grams of magic and perfection". La Poste called the baguette, "the bread of our daily lives, the symbol of our gastronomy, the jewel of our culture". It explained the baguette's popularity, saying: "It is the promise of a [delicious] 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".
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