Anyone who knows anything about bread and is also fortunate enough to have shopped for their daily fix at Pierre Poilâne’s original bakery in St- Germain-des-prés—or any of the five other Poilânes in Paris and London— will forever thereafter have a serious problem.

They’ll want more, now. Because while on paper there is not much to it, in practice the combination of Pierre’s original starter, grey flour, water, sel de guérande and a wood-fired oven generates alchemy. The aroma, crust, dense crumb and mild sourdough tang of the original, two-kilogram Poilâne miche add up to something greater than any other bread.

So, as Poilâne now ships via FedEx to 20 countries, including ours, we decided while experiencing an acute hankering the other day to give the service a go. And it’s easy: all you have to do to summon a loaf is visit shop.poilane.com and plunk down, er, 40.10 euros. Yes, almost $60 for one miche. No big deal.

When you open the box, all you’ll be thinking is, “Why can’t they send me some of those croissants, too?”