<i>Mon dieu!</i> Baguette vending machines in France?

The quintessential Paris experience is to enter a boulangerie, inhale the heavenly smell of fresh bread and buy a baguette for an impromptu picnic on the Seine.

Now imagine stuffing a euro into a vending machine that dispenses warm baguettes with all the cachet of an ATM machine. Talk about a buzz kill.

French baker Jean-Louis Hecht calls his new baguette vending machine the “bakery of tomorrow,” according to this Associated Press story. He has installed two vending machines so far -- one in Paris, one in a northeastern town called Hombourg-Haut -- that spit out hot bread for a Euro (about $1.42).

Who’s likely to like this bread-on-demand? The after-hours crowd who crave a stick of bread when the country’s bakeries are closed. Check out the video to see how it works. I think I’ll stick with waiting for the bakery to open.