France flaunts its baguettes with scratch-and-sniff stamps

PARIS : Visiting Paris for the Olympics and want to share the enticing aroma of a fresh baguette? A scratch-and-sniff stamp on your postcard could be the answer.

The crunchy stick of fluffy white bread is a symbol of France around the world and has been a mainstay of its diet for at least 100 years.

Many would consider its scent of wheat and yeast unrepeatable. But not the French post office.

"You just have to rub the stamp here like this with your nails," said postal worker Clarisse Briend. "You can smell the bread, the baguette."

Just don't expect France's gastronomic purists to be impressed.

"Our yeast is gentle," said Jeanne Barrere, manager of the Leonie Bakery near Paris's Champs-Elysees boulevard. "This smells more like vanilla."

Barrere's chief baker Harlem Gbodialo smelled a "sugary, fruity aroma" that he couldn't place.

Although baguette consumption has declined, France still makes around 16 million per day - or nearly 6 billion a year.

One legend has it that Napoleon Bonaparte's bakers came up with the elongated shape to make it easier for his troops to carry.