COVER N. 229- FRANCE

Postmark: 58 Corbigny - Nievre 29-03.23   

Posted on the 29th March; Received on the 4th April 2023

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Mr. Postman brought me another cover laden with very interesting stamps from the Hexagon. Thank you so much Jean-Pierre, for another great addition to my collection.

- Louis Blériot (1872-1936) is a name that needs no introduction, for he was the man to blame for the Daily Express titling "Britain is no longer an Island", after his first successful aerial crossing of the English Channel or of la Manche (depending on which side of the crossing you  look at it...) on the 25th June 1909, just five and a half years after the 30 metre hop of  Orville Wright at Kitty Hawk,

The epic 36.3 minute flight over 36.6 km entitled him to collect the quite substantial £1,000 prize that  Daily Mail had on offer for whomever would successfully carry through  such a daring feat.

An accomplished engineer who had already proven his merits by creating the first successful headlamp for automobiles, he invested the profits he earned from that venture in his passion for aviation and conceived a number of aircraft of which the Type XI, the monoplane he used in the famous crossing, would be the most successful. Profiting from the publicity that the channel crossing brought about, the Type XI would be a great seller both to military and civilian aviators at worldwide level.

The stamp illustrated with the effigy of Louis Bleriot is part of a set of 2 stamps denominated at 0,50 Franc with a 0.10 Franc charity surtax, issued on 24JUNE1972. Although issued 100 years after Bleriot’s birth, the set also honours another famous Frenchmen,  photographer and inventor Edouard Belin (1876-1963).

- The Centre Nationale d'Études Spatiales, is the French Gocvernmnetal organisation tasked with the responsibility of developing and coordinating France's Space programme.

Established in 1961, The CNES would emerge as the leading European actor in the development of an European logistic capability in the field of space exploration with the Arianne family of rockets and the operation of the Kouru launching facilities of the Centre Spatiale Guyanais in French Guyana.

Nowadays the  CNES is a solid and active partner of  ESA, the European Space Agency, for which it was also one of the creation drivers.

The role of CNES is highlighted in the stamp issued on 125MAY1982, marking the 20th anniversary of the organisation. 

The stamp is illustrated with the image of the first of the Ariane rockets, aptly named Ariane I, with detailed drawings of the propulsion and payload sections, and also of the satellite Éole, a meteorological survey satellite launched on 16AUG1971 in a joint mission CNES/NASA.

- The UIT - Union Internationale des Telecomunications - was created in 1865 thus being the oldest international organisation still standing. Its forerunner was the International Telegraph Union which was established in Paris in 19865 with a view to the harmonisation of  cross-border procedures and equipment so as to guarantee the fastest possible transmissions over the international telegraph network,.

Nowadays the UIT is an agency of the United Nations and its sphere of action and regulation and increased manifold with all the developments in the field of communications that have come to light since Samuel Morse devised his telegraph code in 1835.

The logo of the UIT, a  morse telegraph key, the French Centre de Télécomunications de Pleumeur-Bodou, famous for having been the facility responsible for ensuring the first mondovision tv transmission via the telstar satellite, in 1962,  and a communications satellite, illustrate the 0,60 Franc stamp issued on 17MAY1965 to celebrate the centenary of the organisation. ~

- Charles de Gaulle Airport, locate just 23 km from the capital, in the commune of Roissy-en-France, was inaugurated on the 8th march 1974 and is the largest civil airport in France and the second biggest airport in Europe in terms of processed traffic, after London Heathrow.

To mark the opening of this most relevant infrastructure, La Poste issued on 16MAR1974 a stamp heralding the airport as a symbol of the supersonic future symbolised by the mythic Concorde that is seen on the stamp flying across the then existing single runway (now they are four). 

Ironically, if was from Paris - Charles de Gaulle Airport that the ill fated  Concorde AF 4590 flight of the 25th July 2000 took off, only to crash shortly after,  with the loss of all its occupants, thus marking the beginning of a path that would lead to the end of an era when, on the 27th June 2003, Air France Concorde F-BVFC flew commercially for the last time between Paris and New York, followed some months after by the last landings of British Airways  G-BOAG, G-BOAF G-BOAE at Heathrow, on the 24th October of the same year.

- The Féderation Française des Associations Philatéliques was established on the 5th June 1922 and today it comprises more than 600 associations, a clear indication of the resilience of the hobby, in spite of the changes in habits and interests that our societies have gone through in the era of the electronic revolution.

Honouring the institution on the occasion of its 70th congress, in 1997, that took place at Versailles between 15-17 may 1997  La Poste issued a 3 Franc stamp illustrated with an image of the Versailles Palace and comprising a vignette featuring the logo of the FFAP.

- Further to the above, the cover also includes a Marianne 4.40 Franc issued on 12JUL1993 as part of the Marianne du Bicentenaire series and a 0,20 Liberté from the definitive series issued on 04JAN1982.