COVER N. 610 - FRANCE 

Postmark: Les Reserves Naturelles Ressources en Mediterranée Premier Jour La Poste Paris 11.07.2025

Posted on the 11th July; Received on the 17th July 2025

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This year's chosen topic for the annual common themed stamp issue of the  Member States of the Mediterranean Postal Union - Euromed -  is "Resources of the Mediterranean", and I just got a very nice cover with the French issue, thanks to the attention and care of Roland. Un grand merci, mon ami!

With its very beautiful and joyfully coloured single 2,10 € stamp issue, which began to circulate on 11JUL2015, La Poste chose to highlight the importance of the French Mediterranean coastal natural reserves, scattered along the more than 1000 km of  coastline bathed by this most important inner sea.

In times of overexploitation  of resources and climate change, the sanctuaries that the reserves create are paramount in the protection of species, the more so when located in a sea which sadly has seen much better days.

The stamp is illustrated with a scene that immediately resonates of the south of Europe, the Calanques of Marseille coming to mind even though I too have places much like that on the stamp, with sandstone cliffs and pine trees,  just a 10 minute ride from where I live....

I am also familiar with the type of red starfish that is present on the lower left corner and, most of all, with the amazingly beautiful "Peixe-rei" (King fish, so I call it - Thalassoma pavo) which I fished many a time when I was a kid in the Azores, where the species is also present. 

The beautiful commemorative postmark, issued at Paris, in this case, mirrors the illustration of the stamp.