COVERS N.84/85- France

Postmark: machine applied postmark 38276A-02 France (91320 Wissous, Essonne. Post office) (?) - 23-MAR-22 
Posted on the 23rd March; received on the 25th March
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Upon returning from a weekend escape in the Island of Terceira in the Azores (rain, and rain and rain and fog, but still very enjoyable) I checked my letterbox to find two pre stamped envelopes sent from France with a more than generous gift inside from its sender. Thank you so much Pierre! As I told you, I am at loss of words to tell you how much I appreciated it.

I have written about it here, but I am always taken aback by generous gestures like this one, coming from someone who really doesn't know me at all, and  yet knowing we share some specific interest in something did not hesitate to provide me with  a kind gift I appreciated immensely.

I look at what is going on  in the eastern border of Europe, to what has been going on for ages in the eastern end of the Mediterranean sea  and at what is going on in several other places in this round world of ours and I can't help but wonder how come a race that is capable of such incredibly generous deeds as the one I benefited from be equally capable of such hideous atrocities as those that are going on in Ukraine, have been going on in Syria, Yemen, ... ( anyone reading this can fill in the list at will....)

I tried to find some information regarding the envelopes themselves but wasn't lucky, so I had to don my Poirot hat and try to reach some conclusions....

Cover 84

A self stamped envelope useable for priority mail in the international service, probably part of a set dedicated  to the Regions of France, this one highlighting the "intense violet" of the lavender fields of the then Rhône-Alpss, now Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region.

The pre-printed stamp echoes a 5 Franc stamp issued by la Poste on 25NOV1988 as a joint issue with Switzerland, featuring  "Méta", a painting by Swiss painter and sculptor Jean Tinguely, well know for his moving or kinetic sculptures, which he would call métaméchaniques,  and for  having co-authored, with his wife Niki de Saint Phalle , the sculptures of the amazing Stravinsky fountain, near Centre Pompidou, in Paris.

The back of the envelope has a printed copyright notice by ADAGP, the French associative institution representing artists and authors dated of 1997, so I would presume that this envelope was issued on this same year.

Cover 85

This was an easy one. being also a self stamped envelope useable for priority mail in the international service, it was issued in late 2007, as the  image of the counter in the envelope clearly suggests. 

The pre-printed stamp also echoes that time of the year.. Season's Greetings, it says....