COVER N.122 - FRANCE

Postmark: 89 - AVALLON YONNE 09.06.22
Posted on the 9yh June; received on the 15th June 2022
__________________________________________________________________________________

I feel awful! Much like a bus has ran over me...coughing, sneezing... a bit of fever kept at bay with paracetamol tablets... yes, my time has come, I got caught by the bloody thing too!

Luckily I am fully vaccinated and so is my wife who is already getting back to her normal self after a week of unhappy confinement at home. 

Couldn’t be more grateful to all those that in a record time produced a vaccine, and to all those that in my country pushed forward with what has to be one of the most outstanding logistic feats in our history and granted that, as of 31st may this year, 86% of us have been fully inoculated and a whopping 94,3% have had at least 1 shot of any of the 3 vaccines that have been used. 

In this uncomfortable state of affairs opening the letterbox to find some nice covers waiting to be picked up, feels even better. There's nothing nicer to ward off physically discomfort than occupying your mind with something that might bring you some intellectual satisfaction, be it art,  - and nowadays it is so easy to access art from home, music, museums, literature...- or the mysterious world unfolding from a stamp, as you  investigate what stories lie therein.

So thank you Jean-Pierre for the cover and the much appreciated goodies inside. 

Martinique... endless green, endless emerald blue, thin white sand , coconuts, quintessential Caribbean but part of the European Union as an ultraperiheric region.

Like many of the Caribbean states or domains, its history is one of ruthless colonization divided between French and British occupation,  indigenous people oppression and  slavery, that was officially terminated on the 27th April 1848, but as in any other post-slavagist society, left scars  that aren't even today fully healed.

Nature, the same nature that allows photographers perfect picture postcard shots of  wondrous locations, has also been a harsh punisher. On the 8th May,  1902 Mont Pelée a volcano overlooking the then capital Saint-Pierre, exploded and caused the total destruction of the city, killing no less than 30,000 people. The Volcano is still active today, the last eruption period having been registered in 1929-32.

Stamp 

Le Jardin de Balata, single 1,65€ stamp set, issued on 30MAY2022, dedicated to one of the modern wonders of Martinique: The Balata Garden.

The brain and physical child of  Jean-Philippe Thoze (1941-2017), a landscaper and horticulturist, the tropical garden now reunites more than 3,000 different species of tropical plants in a 3 hectare property that was once his grandparent's. The colonial style house that is also part of the garden park takes central stage on the stamp, which also features a heliconia, a strelitzia, and a white anthurium .