The 38-year-old woman underwent the operation to give her a new nose, chin and mouth at a hospital in the northern French city of Amiens last month.

"When I looked at my new face, I knew straight away that it was me," the paper quoted the woman, who was disfigured after her dog mauled her, as saying.

"It was simply amazing to see a nose and mouth on my face."

The woman, who is recovering in a hospital in Lyon, told the paper that the dog attack had left her so disfigured that she had been forced to wear a dental mask.

People in the street would recoil from her in horror, she said, and even one of her own two daughters found her appearance unbearable.

"My eldest daughter Lucie just didn't want to see me -- I had to wear a mask. If I didn't she refused to see me," she said.

"Old people were the worst, they used to stop and stare at me all the time."

Earlier this week the woman asked journalists to respect her privacy after her operation attracted a media frenzy.

The paper said the woman now wanted to live a normal life but was worried about what reaction there might be when she leaves hospital.

"I am scared that people will recognize me as the woman who had a face transplant," she told the Mail.

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