You will find them everywhere in the French countryside.Drive through small villages or hamlets and you will see them on the street corners: baguette machines.They are like booths where you throw money in and then a fresh baguette rolls out.There are no official figures, but according to estimates there are now about 12,000 such machines spread across France.And their numbers continue to grow."I started the first five years ago and now have seven," says Norman baker Nicolas Lepenant."Thanks to those seven machines, I now sell about 750 extra baguettes a day. My turnover has skyrocketed. I was able to hire an extra baker and also two guys who bring the loaves to the machines seven days a week."Lepenant owns a bakery in Pont Audemer, not far from Rouen.Around it are many small villages between the corn fields.And like everywhere else in the French countryside, cafes, pharmacies and bakeries close their doors here.There are so few residents left that a shop is no longer profitable."I have heard that about seven bakers a month are now closing their business. That is very sad for a country like France," says Lepenant."There was a bakery in one of these municipalities near here, Corneville-sur-Risle, but it also closed a few years ago."So Lepenant suggested to the mayor to set up a baguette collection point."At first he thought it was quite strange that there wouldn't be a real baker anymore. The French are quite attached to that, aren't they? But I showed him how well things were going in other villages, and then I got the green light."It cost Lepenant all together 55,000 euros to set up the device in the village.Now he sells 160 baguettes a day here.Customers can park their car next door (for free)."The baguettes are really tasty, they are crispy," says a lady who has just thrown 1.10 euros into the machine."As far as I'm concerned, they are just as tasty as the baker's."A man gets in line."The big advantage: you can always go here. Even when the shops are closed, even in the evening. That is practical."Another resident of the village joins the queue."The baguette here costs 10 cents more than at the bakery. But that bakery shop is miles away from here. So that 10 cents easily outweighs the gas costs."Nicolas Lepenant walks to the back of the machine with a pile of baguettes from his own bakery."They're half baked."He puts them one by one on a rack in the cabin."From here they roll into the oven, at the back of the machine. There they are baked in seven minutes. So the customer always has fresh bread."The market is growing rapidly, say all those involved.One of the larger producers of the baguette machines is MaBaguette in western France.At the start in 2013, it delivered about seventy machines a year.There are now three to four times as many.They are devices where the baguettes go in ready-baked.Manufacturer ICI Baguettes supplies collection points with a built-in oven, which is on about 200 devices sold per year.The baguette collection points have become a familiar sight in the villages.They are popping up everywhere and it is a forced solution for the countryside with its store closures.Some French people are afraid that an old tradition will disappear: at the bakery you always have a chat with the seller or with the other customers.But at the baguette vending machine there is little social contact.You take out your baguette and you leave again."Well, you know: we put these machines in places where there is no longer a baker," says Nicolas Lepenant."Instead of people having to drive for miles, they can now just go to their own neighborhood."And even at the 'baguette robot', as one customer calls it, people regularly stop to chat with other customers."Everyone happy, right?" says Lepenant.