The baguette vending machine: Video

Even in a 24-hour society, we've all experienced hunger pangs at 4am in the morning and not always been able to fulfil them. Those days could soon be about to come to an end with the arrival of an unusual vending machine in France.

Baker Jean-Louis Hecht has set up a machine in Paris that dispenses baguettes round the clock. A cross between a vending machine and a microwave, the coin-operated machine is loaded up with part-baked baguettes, heating them up and dispensing them to hungry passers-by in exchange for one euro (90p).



Hecht - who has also set up a machine in the north-eastern town of Hombourg-Haut - said: "This is the bakery of tomorrow. If other bakers don't want to enter the niche, they're going to get decimated."

The machine in Hombourg-Haut sold 1,600 baguettes when it began operating in January, and its popularity has only grown. Hecht says that 4,500 were sold during July.

However, another Parisian baker, Jean-Luc Avel, has said that he fears "the end of the traditional boulangerie" if the new machines catch on.

See one of Jean-Louis Hecht's baguette vending machines in action below:



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