COVER N. 527 - FRANCE

Postmark: Musée de La Poste Paris 28.10.2024 

Posted on the 28th October; Received on the 4th November 2024

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Another French cover with a single stamp issue joins the fold, thanks to Roland. Merci bien.

I have to confess I had never heard about the "Planches de Deauville" until I tried to get some information on the stamp Roland used on this particular cover.

If proof needed be that stamps can foster knowledge, than one should look no further. In fact, time and time again, I have to go and search for information (on the internet mostly, these days) on a particular item being highlighted in a stamp, because I am not familiar with it.

Such is, then, the case of the Planches. As I understand it, Les planches are a 643 m long boardwalk promenade in front of an amazing Art Deco building comprising bars, shops and  250 bath cabins (les Bains Pompéiens) , each one of them nowadays being named after an actor/actress in connection with the American Film Festival of Deauville that has been taking place in the city every year since 1975.

This interesting infrastructure was inaugurated in 1924, having been conceived by Architect Charles Adda (1873-1978).

For its centenary, la Poste has issued a single 1,96 € stamp issue, on 22JUL2024, illustrated with an head-on photo of a section of the boardwalk and bath cabins, on which the official logo for the centenary celebrations replicating the art deco dividing screens (for lack of a better word...) that define the entry to each bath cabin  was superimposed in white.

The stamp was cancelled with the nice pictorial postmark of the Paris Postal Museum, featuring a stagecoach in action. 

POSTCARD N.169 - GERMANY 

Postcrossing Postcard sent on the 28th October, received on the 31st October 2024

Postcard image: August Horch Museum, in Zwickau

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Vielen Dank Christian, for a Postcrossing meet up postcard sent from Zwickau, containing the personal stampmark of no fewer than 17 Postcrossers. 

I'm sure they all had a great time, and so did I upon receiving this nice memento of their reunion.

August Horch (1868 - 1951) was a german industrialist and car designer, who became famous for founding not only the brand that would carry his name, but also the original Audi  company,  nowadays part of the VW universe.

Horch would also be linked to Auto Union, the company which created the four interconnecting rings as a logo, that is now used by Audi after its second resurgence in 1965.

Each of the Auto Union logo's rings represented a company integrated into the new car making conglomerate established in 1932, on which August Horch would serve as a member of the board, these companies being:

DKW - founded by Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen in 1916;

Horch -  Founded by August Horch in 1904

Audi - also founded by August Horch in 1909

Wanderer - established in 1911

The August Horch Museum, inaugurated in 2004 occupies the building in which August Horch instaled the Audi car manufacture plant in Zwickau, in 1910, its collections illustrating the evolution of the Horch and Audi brands throughout the years.

The role of the plant in the production of Trabant cars during the years of the DDR is also highliughted in the permnet exhibitions of the museum.

The 0,95€ stamp on the postcard was issued on 01MAR2024 as part of a two stamp set in the "Landmarks of Germany" series, initiated in 2022. It depicts the St. Pauli Piers of Hamburg, on the Elbe river, with its distinctive clock tower. 

COVER N. 526 - MAROC

Postmark: Maroc/Portugal Unis para l'amitié, Barid Al-Maghrib 07.10.2024 / Meknés C-D. 21.10.2024 

Posted on the 21st October; Received on the 30th October 2024

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Thanks to Roland and Pierre, I am able to have the FDC for the Moroccan version of a common issue with my own country. Un grand Merci, Roland et Pierre. C'est vraiment super!

Portuguese presence in Morocco goes back to 1415, when Portuguese troops under the command of King João I, conquered Ceuta. This would be the first episode of the Portuguese expansion in Moroccan territory and later throughout coastal Africa. 

The Portuguese would progressively go as far south in Moroccan territory as Santa Cruz do Cabo de Gué, near Agadir,  but in 1541, Moroccan forces recuperated this stronghold and bit by bit the Moroccans would recover what was theirs by right. 

Finally, In 1774, King Jose I and Sultan Mulei Muhammad bin Abdallah (Muhammad III) signed a Treaty for Peace, Navigation and Commerce, thus formally putting an end to the belligerency and  establishing diplomatic and commercial relations between the two nations.

Much later, in 1912, Morocco would again loose its independency, its territory  being divided into  protectorates of France and Great Britain, and only in 1956, would this North African state regain its full independency.

Rekindling a long lasting and mutually proficuous relation, in 1994, the Prime Ministers of Portugal and Morocco, Aníbal Cavaco Silva and Abdellatif Filali signed  a Friendship, Neighbourhood and Cooperation Treaty, following which more than a dozen summits between  the heads of Government of both countries have  already taken place, as a measure to further the socio-economic relationships between the two nations.

Highlighting the importance of both these relevant diplomatic Treaties,  signed off  250 and 30 years ago respectively, the Postal operators of both countries issued a joint emission on 07OCT2024, with two very nice stamps  illustrated with unmistakable landmarks of both Morocco and Portugal.

On the Moroccan side, the beautiful painting based on photo bank images depicts the Sqala of the Essouira port, part of the town's Medina which enjoys UNESCO World Heritage Site status. The Sqala was built under the orders of  the same Sultan who signed the Treaty of 1774, Moahamed III. The fortified defensive tower and its walls, where Spanish and Dutch canons still overlook the sea, are well preserved and can be visited.

Portugal, in turn, is represented by the most beautiful square in the world, if a bit of narcissistic national pride can be permitted me.

Praça do Comércio, or Terreiro do Paço, as it is more commonly known in Portugal,  opens Lisbon to the Tagus and thenceforth to the sea.

Built in its present configuration after the tremendous earthquake that obliterated most of the city on All Saints Day 1775, during the reign of  D. José I (again the same monarch that signed the Peace treaty with Morocco), you really have to be there right in the middle of it, next to D. José's equestrian statue conceived by Machado de Castro, one of our greatest sculptors,  on a fresh and sunny April's day or in a stormy autumn's day, with few people around you (this might not be very easy to accomplish, though),  to enjoy its monumentality to the fullest and to see the way light interacts with its grand towers  and monumental arch, 

 

An FDC for the Portuguese 0,65 € stamp  with the First Day postmark issued at Lisbon, reading "Joint issue  - Portugal Morocco -  United by friendship. 

The stamps from both issues (again Merci Pierre, pour ton aide.)

COVER N. 525 - FRANCE

Postmark: Pierre Puvis de Chavannes 1824-1898 Premier Jour 69 Lyon 25.10.2024 

Posted on the 25th October; Received on the 29th October 2024

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Un grand Merci, Eric, for another great First Day Cover, this time dedicated to a French painter who although not as resounding as those which made the first decades of the 20th century a true collectors' cards album, for he belonged to the precedent artistic generation, left his mark on many a public building not only in France but also elsewhere in the world.

Culture... in its many forms. Art... the precipitate of Man's existence... what's left after we have all gone... our intimate imprint as a society, our offer to the universe, should we ever make contact with other forms of life...

That's why it is so important to celebrate it and its creators. Some have spent lives of incredible hardship only to now fill the pockets of those that see in art nothing but "an asset"; some have managed to make do with the fruits of their hard work; some even have made it extremely well in their lifetime... but they all are or will one day be gone too, and what will be left is their sublime work.

Such as the huge canvases Pierre Puvis de Chavannes has painted for Marseille's Museum of Arts, which I had the pleasure of admiring in loco, or any of his other majestic paintings in the Pantheon, Sorbonne or the Library of Boston.

Born in 1824, in Lyon, and deceased in Paris, in 1898, Puvis de Chavannes would only climb the stairs of reconnaissance and admiration after a first success in 1961, when after several unsuccessful participations in the Salon de Peinture et de Sculpture, the French State bought his painting Concordia which can now be seen in the Musée de Picardie, in Amiens. So enthralled was the painter by his success that he offered France the companion work, Bellum, so as not to disrupt the conceptual link between the two paintings, allegories for War (Bellum) and Peace (Concordia).

On the occasion of the bicentenary of his birth, la Poste issued on 25OCT2024 the 2,58€ stamp on the cover, illustrated with a detail of his painting Le Bois sacré cher aux arts et aux muses, which decorates the monumental staircase hall of the Musée de Beaux-Arts de Lyon.

It should be noted that Puvis de Chavannes produced three versions of this painting, the other two being an original much smaller study, created in 1864 which won that year's Salon grand prize  and  residing currently at the Art Institute of Chicago and a large painting originally destined for the Sorbonne, finished in 1889 and which can now be seen at the Met in New York.

Fittingly, the First Day postmark was issued at Puis de Chavanne's birthplace, the city of Lyon. 

POSTCARD N.168 - GERMANY 

Postcrossing Postcard sent on the 26th October, received on the 29th October 2024

Postcard image: Moselle river somewhere in Germany

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UPDATE:

These are the days of wonder...said Paul Simon on his "The boy in the bubble" song... indeed they are.

While trying to conjure a few phrases together to fill the post pertaining to Stefan's nice Moselle valley postcard, I fired up Google Earth and tried to follow the course of the river from France and Luxembourg up to Germany, to see if I could find anything remotely superimposable to the image on the card. I confess I did not spend too much time on it and, maybe because of that, I was totally unsuccessful.

Well, turns out Stefan was indeed kind enough to take a look at my blog and read the post regarding his postcard and he kindly provided me with all the relevant information regarding the location in the image.

Quoting direct form his message, for which I could not be more thankful:

"If you're interested in the exact location of the view side:

49°48'40.67"N, 6°53'25.00"E

The town in the middle of the photo is Leiwen. The little village in the middle behind it is actually a holiday village (Eurostrand). At the foot of the right mountain range, the first village to come is Köwerich on the side of the slip slope, where I live. Diagonally behind on the side of the impact slope is Klüsserath."

So there we have it. Thanks a bunch Stefan. You do live in a fine place.

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A very nice postcard from Germany with a view that clearly illustrates the importance of the Moselle Valey for Rieseling production in Germany. Danke Sehr, Stefan.

Stefan tells me that grapes have been cultivated in this region since the time of the Romans who left some quite remarkable landmarks behind such as the "Porta Nigra", at Trier, the oldest city in Germany and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

David Bowie (1947-2016) is one of those names that need no introduction, so important was his contribution to popular music of the 20th century, as a performer, composer and musician.

Born David Robert Jones, David Bowie, as he would later be known, first hit the chords of fame with his well known song Space Oddity, in which he tells the story of Major Tom, an astronaut whose mission at some point seems to go awry.... but "planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do".... so maybe, in the end, Major Tom manages to go back into his capsule and return to our planet....

The song was released in 1969, the year  Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon and just one year after the epic Kubrick Film from which it gets a strong inspiration.

Bowie would not only draw inspiration from movies but he would also participate in them, in fact in more than 30 of them. His role in Nagisa Oshima's Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, comes to mind, as I write.

Bowie had a strong link to Berlin, a city where he would produce three albums that would become known as the Berlin Trilogy, of which no song is more famous than "Heroes", which would become a sort of a hymn for the events that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany.

On 03JAN2022, for the Musician's 75th birthday, and 6 years after his passing, Deutsche Post honoured him with the 0,85 € stamp on the postcard, featuring a very young Bowie playing guitar, although he was also a multi-intrumentalist who played keyboards and saxophone.

The 0.10€ stamp is part of the definitive "flowers" series initiated in 2005. It was issued on 08JUN2017 and it depicts a Winter Aconite (Eranthis hyemalis).

 

COVER N. 524 - FRANCE

Postmark: Bureau Philatélique of Lyon Bellecour - 21.10.2024 

Posted on the 21st October; Received on the 24th October 2024

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They called it "The longest day"... that was also the name of the book by Cornelius Ryan that I had on my bedside table when I was  a lad of  say 13 or so.... a time, for boys, when all wars are winnable, when only good prevails, when all soldiers are heroes,  when you'd want to be one of those heroes, when you never think that heroes are mostly remembered for having given that most precious possession for a cause...when focus on the future is achieved at the infinity mark on one's inner lens....

The truth could not be far from that, we all know, but sometimes there is no escape: for good to prevail,  force has to be corresponded by force, with all that this simple equation entails.... 

Lest we forget, they said in 1918. Well, by 1939 they all had forgotten and the mad dogs were on the loose again, their leashes held by the hands of a deranged lunatic, who drove the world to 6 years of the utmost brutality that has ever been witnessed, whose devious mind and those of his closest followers, conceived the unconceivable.... a final solution, they said....an euphemism for sheer horror....

And Man thought we would never see such lack of empathy, such cold, irrational behaviour, such barbarity.... and yet, we have plenty of examples in the past since then when this was not so... Even today as I read on the news that the people that once suffered horrors is the same that is bringing horror to others in a way that can never be justified or excused, or even conceived, after being also brutally and senselessly attacked, while those that promptly and justifiably so were fast to condemn the aggression coming from the eastern steppes, turn a blind eye (not to say, overtly support) on a politician who thinks himself above the laws of war and international respect and co-existence.

Peace talks... you'd have to be interested in Peace to talk about it. None of the sides seems to be so.

There was a moment in time. The leaders even won the deserved Nobel Prize, 30 years ago. Then they were eliminated by those they sought to protect... 

The longest day was not the 6th June 1944... the longest day is the history of Man, from the day it evolved from ape to man...in his relentless fight for freedom and his unabated will to deny it....

When will we ever learn?

Un grand Merci Eric, pour ce joli pli avec le bloc commémoratif des 80 ans du débarquement en  Normandie!

The 6th June 1944

The beginning of the end for the Second World War, and of the liberation of France and Europe, from the boots of the Nazi beast.

Lest we forget!

Highlighting this important anniversary, La Poste issued on 10JUN2024  the lovely souvenir sheet with a single 1,96 stamp that Eric use on this particular  letter.

The stamp features the image of allied soldiers  (American, British and Canadian, mostly)  advancing towards the towns of Sainte-Mére-Église, the first to be liberated on the 7th June,  Avranches (30 July);  and Metz (13 December).

It is difficult to devise in the stamp but the image of  the church of Sainte-Mère-Église does include the famous parachutist - John Steele -  dangling from its tower, in which his parachute become entangled. This famous image has been since permanently recreated on the spot by a  mannequin dangling from a parachute, which I had the pleasure of seeing quite a few years ago when I visited the area.

On the foreground of the stamp is a newer monument (or at least I have no recollection of it). The zero milestone of the road to freedom, implanted in front of Saint-Mère-Église Town Hall.

Is should be noted that this souvenir sheet highlighting operation Neptune, the landings in Normandy, is the companion to another beautiful creation by the same designer - Louis Genty - conceived to honour the 80 anniversary of Operation Dragon, the landings at the Cote d'Azur, which I mentioned on post regarding cover #521.

Monsieur Genty was also the artist behing the outstanding souvenir sheet on cover #458.

POSTCARD N.167 - RUSSIA 

Postcard sent on the 21st September, received on the 22nd October 2024

Postcard image: Immanuel Kant

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A surprise from Russia in the guise of a Maxim Card  dedicated to one of the lights of the Enlightenment, sent by The Flying Dutchman. Hartelijk dank, Eric, que é o mesmo que dizer: Muito Obrigado!

Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804) one of the greatest philosophers of all times, was born and died (and lived all his live, it seems) in what was then Königsberg, Prussia, and is now Kaliningrad, the administrative capital of the Russian Exclave of the same name, nested between Lithuania and Poland.

On the tercentenary of his birth, Marka, the company responsible for producing Russia's stamps, issued, on 22APR2024, the commemorative 70 Ruble stamp used on the maxim card, equally issued by the same company, which Eric so kindly made sure I would receive.

Postage was completed with a 30 Ruble stamp  issued on 17MAR2021, part of a set of identical face value stamps dedicated to  Fedoskino miniature lacquer paintings, a type of folk art that emerged in the 18th century  in the city of Fedoskino, consisting of miniatures painted with oil paints on papier mâché.

The images on the stamps are those of lacquer boxes from the collection of the Moscow Regional Museum of Folk Art Crafts and besides Tea Party (1946) by V.I. Lavrov, which illustrates the stamp on the card, there are stamps featuring images of the following works: "Ruslan and Lyudmila" (1971) by M.S. Chizhov; The Firebird (1959) by S.V. Monashov; and Ivan da Marya (1989) by Yu.V. Dotsenko.

The Very Nice maxim Card which is cancelled with a First Day postmark from Moscow, was mailed to me from the City of Saint Petersburg, as can be grasped from the Postmark cancelling the stamps actually used to post the card.