The French Post Office on Friday rolled out a scratch-and-sniff postage stamp to celebrate the world-famous baguette, once described by President Emmanuel Macron as "250 grams of magic and perfection".

But it was unveiled Thursday, the day of Saint-Honore, the patron saint of bakers and pastry chefs, by the French postal service.

"The baguette, the bread of our daily lives, the symbol of our gastronomy, the jewel of our culture", La Poste says on its website.

The stamp, which costs €1.96, depicts a baguette decorated with a blue-white-red ribbon. It has a print run of 594,000 copies.

According to the Parisian shop Le Carre d'encre, which sells it, the stamp has a "bakery scent". The ink used on the stamps contains microcapsules which provide the fragrance.

"This scent is encapsulated. We buy it from another manufacturer," Damien Lavaud, printer at Philaposte, was quoted as saying by France Bleu.

"And 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."

The new stamps went on sale on Friday.

The French baguette, one of the abiding symbols of the nation, was given UNESCO heritage status in 2022