If You Are In France,

get ready to sniff a stamp!

all images La Poste, no it is not April Fools Day! French post office La Poste has introduced a stamp designed by Stéphane Humbert-Basset that gives off the scent of bread when scratched to celebrate the baguette, the stamp has a "bakery scent", which was achieved through the use of microcapsules that are embedded within the ink of the stamps to provide the bread-like fragrance, reported French newspaper Le Monde, The baguette was given UNESCO heritage status in 2022, which the post office referenced in its decision to create the stamps, "The baguette transcends borders to become an international icon," La Poste said, "The inclusion of these artisanal skills and its culture in UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage testifies to its influence and establishes it as an ambassador of the bakery craft."

designed by Humbert-Basset, the stamp for international letters has a print run of 594,000 copies and is sold in sheets of 15, the illustrator also designed a one-stamp souvenir leaflet that's inserted into a three-fold card featuring a large picture of a baguette,

so how does it work? "This scent is encapsulated," Damien Lavaud, printer at Philaposte, told radio station France Bleu. "We buy it from another manufacturer, the difficulty for us is to apply this ink without breaking the capsules, so that the smell can then be released by the customer rubbing on the stamp," he said, I guess our UK post office will counter with the all English fry up! that has made me hungry just thinking about it!