





One ingenious baker has found a way to make sure his customers have access to fresh baguettes — a staple of French meals — at all hours.

Jean-Louis Hecht has opened coin-operated baguette vending machines outside his bakeries in Paris and Hombourg-Haut in northeast France. The loaves are pre-cooked, placed in the machines and warmed up when purchased.

"This is the bakery of tomorrow," Hecht told The Telegraph. "If other bakers don't want to enter the niche, they're going to get decimated."

When the machine in Hombourg-Haut opened in January, it dispensed 1,600 baguettes; last month it sold 4,500.

With the introduction of specialized vending machines, could the traditional boulangerie go the way of the video-rental store?

Image courtesy of Flickr, treehouse1977