COVER N. 222 - FRANCE

Postmark: 58 Clamency - Nièvre 10.03.23  

Posted on the 10th March; Received on the 14th March 2023

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5 days, including a weekend. Fast service from France to Portugal, no great deal, though, considering that the face of the cover is full not only of  notable pilots and aircraft but also with a bunny, and everybody knows that bunnies are fast creatures  😀

Thanks a lot Jean-Pierre for a great addition to the collection and also for the stamps inside. I truly appreciated it.

Not being a true connoisseur, whenever I think about French stamps, what immediately  comes to my mind are the classic beautiful recess printed stamps that were in use during the second half of last century, when I first did collect stamps. Today of course, La Poste maintains the tradition and there are still see plenty of these little gems seeing the light of the day, but designs and looks have evolved of course, as expected with any form of art.

So much so that receiving a cover such as this one can, in some way, be akin to a very enjoyable visit to a fine arts museum, as the pleasure I get from looking at such magnificent creations affixed to an humble envelope is much the same I get when I contemplate a beautiful painting hanging on a wall.

Stamps , left to right:

The year of the rabbit issue  began to circulate on 14JAN2023. It comprised  2 stamps: the one on this cover, meant for domestic service, lettre verte,  denominated at 1,16€ and the one meant for international service, with a face value of 1,80€, which was used on cover #203.

The absolutely wonderful 12 franc stamp celebrating the memory of Maurice Noguès,  one of the French  aviation pioneers who would play an important role in the development of civil aviation was issued on 13OCT1951. 

Charles Lindbergh, Lucky Lindy, and the unlucky but every bit as courageous and tenacious Charles Nungesser and François Coli are the subject of the 1,90 Frank stamp issued on 04JUN1977, celebrating the 50th anniversary of  both flights across the Atlantic. 

That of Lindbergh, the first nonstop flight across the ocean, on the 20th May 1927, West to East, along with the predominant winds, 33h30min of  solitary flying that almost ended up in the middle of the ocean when Morpheus took over and Lindbergh found himself skimming over the crest of the cold waves, and which came to a close with the most extraordinary landing at Le Bourget at night with an airfield illuminated by the headlamps of cars and absolutely packed with people. To this day, the fact that no one was hurt, ranks to me as great a feat as the crossing itself...

Charles Nungesser, the ace with the Jolly Roger painted on his Nieuport fighter in WWI,  the third highest scoring French ace, after Fonck and Guynemer. 

François Coli, an exceptional pilot and navigator. also honed in the hardships of WW1.

Together they would try to cross the ocean the other way, the harder way,  against the wind,  in a  Levasseur PL8.

On the 8th of May 1927, L'Oiseau Blanc, so was named their aircraft, took off from the same Le Bourget field where Lindebergh would land in less than a fortnight. It would be last  sighted over Ireland. After that, only the aviation gods and angels would know where its flight ended....

During the later days of the Franco-Prussian war, when Paris was already besieged Félix Nadar, the multi talented journalist, photographer, aviator, balloonist, had the idea of using hot air balloons for ensuring communications between the besieged population and the military forces beyond the enemy siege line, thus inaugurating what we now know as air mail. 

On 16JAN1971, La Poste issued a 0,95 Franc stamp to celebrate the centenary of this event. On it an hot air balloon rises to the sky in front of what looks like a governmental building, a Mairie, probably, while in the lower front corner the silhouette of mail bags and homing pigeons hint at the function the balloon is carrying out. 

The Museum of Art and Industry at St. Etienne is the subject of a stamp issued on 20FEB1960,

Created in 1899, the museum has  important collections of weapons. bicycles and fabrics.

Concorde, the most successful supersonic airliner that ever was.. (well the Russian counterpart, the Tu 144, only made 55 commercial flights, before the project was scrapped)....

As a kid I remember seeing it taking off at dusk, at Lisbon Airport. What a sight... the afterburners  like  giant Bunsen burners expelling long plumes of blue flames, the roaring noise  and I,  on the terrace of the airport. with my hand tightly grasping whatever was at hand, a stick maybe, impelling it forward, as if pushing the throttle levers forward.,...

The Concorde first took to the air on the 2nd march 1969, and to commemorate the event, La Poste issued a single 1 Franc air mail stamp on 03MAR1969.