France Releases Baguette-Scented Scratch and Sniff Stamps

France is really going all out for the Olympics, ensuring every tiny detail is perfect for the occasion. Right down to the stamps visitors will be using to send postcards home to loved ones. 

On May 16, which happens to also be the feast of Saint-Honoré, the patron saint of bakers and pastry chefs, La Poste, the nation’s national postal service, put a brand-new stamp in circulation that features a lovely drawing of a baguette, a piece of bread so central to French culture that it made its way onto UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list.

And while the drawing is lovely, that’s not even the coolest part. You see, this stamp is a full scratch-and-sniff experience, making it smell just like the freshly baked version, ensuring whoever gets your letter will be seething with jealousy once they get a whiff.  

“The baguette, bread of our daily life, symbol of our gastronomy, jewel of our culture,” the stamp’s description reads (via Google translate) on the postal service’s website. “It consists of basic ingredients such as flour, water, salt, yeast and/or sourdough. This apparent simplicity reveals a complexity of manufacturing: dosing and weighing of ingredients, kneading, fermentation, division, relaxation, shaping, priming, cooking scarification. So many meticulous steps mastered by the artisan baker whose unique know-how is passed down from generation to generation.” 

It continues, “Bearer of culture and customs, the baguette is deeply rooted in the daily practices of the French. She embodies a ritual, that of going to her bakery, a local business anchored in the regions, attracting twelve million consumers every day.” And if that isn’t the most utterly romantic way to describe bread, in a way only the French can do, we don’t know what is. 

The stamp is specifically meant for international packages weighing about 0.7 ounces and is available for purchase at post offices and kiosks throughout the nation for about $2.14 each, or €1.96. And if you see some, you better get it, as it comes with a limited print run of 594,000.