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FRENCH TRADITIONS

France’s Elysee palace to bring back public changing of guard

The Elysee palace in Paris, home to the French presidency, said Sunday it will bring back a public changing of the guard ceremony, 27 years after it was last held.

France's Elysee palace to bring back public changing of guard
French Republican Guard officers walk in the courtyard of the Elysee Palace, in Paris on September 8, 2023. Photo: Geoffroy Van der Hasselt/AFP.

In a statement, the presidential office said the formal ceremony will be visible to the public on every first Tuesday of the month, starting on November 7, at 9 am (0800 GMT).

Two sections of the French Republican Guard of 16 soldiers will march along nearby Avenue de Marigny and Rue de l’Elysee and meet outside the Elysee gates
on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore.

There the section leaders will salute each other and exchange orders before entering the palace for their 24-hour duty, the statement said.

The public changing of the guard outside the Elysee was first held in 1909 every day at 7:45 am, but discontinued in 1996.

The Republican Guard, a military unit of 3,400 soldiers, is charged with the protection of official buildings in France and wide-ranging protocol duties.

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FRENCH TRADITIONS

French post office rolls out scratch-and-sniff baguette stamp

The French Post Office on Friday released a scratch-and-sniff postage stamp to celebrate the world-famous baguette. The ink used on the stamps contains microcapsules which provide the fragrance.

French post office rolls out scratch-and-sniff baguette stamp

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 baguette transcends frontiers to become an international icon.” 

The loaf has been famously described by President Emmanuel Macron as “250 grams of magic and perfection”.

The stamp, which costs 1.96 euro, 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.

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“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.

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