COVER N. 645 - FRANCE

Postmark: La Poste 08.10.2025 

Posted on the 8th October; Received on the 14th October 2025

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Once again I am visited by Monsieur Gustave Eiffel, the man who conceived wrought iron structures which went well beyond their functional purpose, for monumental masterpieces, art icons, they were.

M. Eiffel has already featured on my humble blog a propos cover #228 but I have to say that I quite like the way the envelope of this particular cover is embellished with a "stuttering" souvenir sheet which works a charm, from a composition point of view.

Un énorme Merci, Daniel!

 

Since all I said about Eiffel on cover #228 still holds, of course, true, I will not elaborate more on the life and deeds of this most famous French Engineer, but I'll register again the fact that the in-taglio one 1,80€ stamp souvenir sheet issued on 27MAR2023, on the occasion of the centenary of Eiffel's death, is a true masterwork of philatelic art, with all the intricate detail present not only on the engineer's portrait that occupies most of the stamp but also in the reproductions of the iron lattice works of the Eiffel Tower, the Gabarit Viaduct and Nice's Observatory cupola, that grace the souvenir sheet frame.

Another thing that I can't help but notice when inspecting the envelope is that the price of a base tariff stamp  for the  international service in France has gone up almost 17% since 2023.

To make up for the 80 cent difference, Daniel used a label of that value affixed on the back of the envelope, so as not to conflict with the beautiful layout on its face.

One final note to mention that the  postmark does not include any information regarding the place of expedition.

COVERs N. 642/43 - FRANCE

Postmark: Croisssant au Beurre 1er Jour 25 - Valence / Paris 07.10.2025 

Posted on the 7th October September; Received on the 14th October 2025

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What could be more French than say... Champagne? La Baguette? Escargots? Michelle of the Resistance?

A clue: it gets its name from its shape and, fresh from the baker's, just by itself or blessed with a slice of cheese, or ham, or both, alongside a cup of warm coffee, can do wonders to revitalise your spirit, after a good night sleep or a sleepless night....

Yes, you've guessed it...: Mesdames et Messieurs, je vous donne (drum roll, please), Le Croissant au Beurre!

And I had it double for breakfast today, for I got two wonderful covers, just in time for my morning cup of coffee, from Eric and Roland, to whom I could not be more grateful. Un grand Merci, les amis!

I am not an expert in croissants (although I expertely like to eat them....), so I did a bit of research as to their origin and it seems they can be linked to an Austrian pastry, called kipferl, which was introduced in France by an Austrian artillery officer, August Zang, in the last years of the thirties, of the eighteen hundreds.

Herr Zang started selling kipferls in the bakery he opened in Paris, to such a success that soon they were hitting the shelves of bakeries in a locally developed iteration, fashioned out of a yeast-leavened dough rich in butter, which, when expertly worked out, would produce the delicious laminations that fall everywhere on the table and on one's body with each new bite of the crscent shaped contraption.

The croissant, that fabulous monument of puff pastry, was thus born and its fame would cross rapidly cross borders, so much so that I do believe that it is one of those products that might be bought in all of the earth's continents, with the exception of Antarctica (and then again, there is a couple of French bases south of the Antartcic circle, so, there must be a croissant there, somewhere). 

Celebrating this edible piece of French culture and gastronomy, La Poste issued, on 07OCT2025, a  2.10 € stamp illustrated with  a photo of a croissant.

Of note is the fact that the stamp is scented, and it theory it should evoke the smell of a freshly baked croissant on the inquiring nose. Still, to me (and Eric also felt more or less the the same, he tells me) the scent it radiates makes me think more of  a  cross between  vanila and caramel than of the smooth, fatty smell of butter.

Another fact worth mentioning is that Eric went through the trouble of traveling to Valence, to get the First day Postmark, for Valence is the place where the annual  Best Croissant au Beurre Contest took place this year, and La Poste chose to issue it in connection with the Contest.

That said, the cover that Roland sent me has the First Day postmark of Paris, so I ended up getting two different first day postmarked covers. Neat!

Now... where did I put my cholesterol pills....?

COVER N. 640 - FRANCE

Postmark: Service des Oblitérations Philatéliques 24 - Boulazac  06.10.2025 

Posted on the 6th October; Received on the 9th October 2025

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Quite an uncommon addition to the collection, this nice cover from France, with an oval stamp. Un grand Merci, Roland. 

It is well know that there are things that we take for granted, and never ever give a thought as to their origin... they seem to have been there for ever and we just can't imagine our days, our lives, without them.

And yet , some of them are not that old. Take the Tetra Pak brik carton, for instance....If I strain my neurons a bit I can evoke the days when milk was sold in glass jars, sealed plastic bags, or even before that,  the days when the milkman would come by our house daily to supply us with freshly milked milk, which, when heated, would produce on its surface a delicious skin of cream that I would grasp with a spoon to lay on a dish and mix with some sugar.... hmmmm yummy.....

Many other artefacts that make our live much easier are much older than the Tetra brik, so much so that one would think that some of them would already have been named in the Book of Genesis, for hard as we try we can't recollect leaving without them.

The humble pencil is one such item. 

The practical and useful combination of a wooden stick with a graphite core was one of the first artefacts that I as so many children were presented with during their first formative years, just as we started to be able to coordinate our gestures and movements. 

Those first pencil scribbles, made it easier to later learn how to draw letters and numbers and gain access to the wonderful world of written expression. 

The origin of the pencil can be traced back to the days when coal would be used to leave a mark on a surface.... and ever since then, nothing has really changed in its purpose, although its form has significantly changed.

In fact, from the first sticks of coal and jet, to the later lead stylus, used by the Romans, the most common writing implement before the BIC ballpoint would evolve to the shape and composition we all know in the final years of the 18th century, as the brainchild of French army officer, painter, balloonist, and inventor Nicolas-Jacques Conté (1755 - 1805).

Story has it that when Napoleon's France was under an economic blockade that made it impossible to import  graphite sticks from the UK, Conté had the idea of mixing graphite powder with clay and encasing a core of the mix in cylinders of wood. The modern pencil was thus born and such was its success that Conté would create a company that bore his name - Societé Comté -  and which subsists to this day, dedicated to its production. 

220 years past his passing (or 270, past his birth) La Poste honoured Nicolas-Jacques Conté with the 2,10 €  stamp on the cover, issued on 28JUL2025.

The oval stamp, which is nested on the 15 stamp sheets on which the issue was printed as a traditional rectangular stamp, so that you can separate the stamp from the sheet as an oval or a rectangle, is illustrated with an engraving of  Monsieur Conté wearing an eye band over his left blind eye, a result of an accident with hydrogen during his aerostat development investigations.

The very neat postmark was applied by the Philatelic Obliterations Service, at  Boulazac.

COVER N. 634 - FRANCE

Postmark: 50 ans Radio France Premier Jour 42 Saint-Etriènne 29.08.2025 

Posted on the 29th August; Received on the 6th September 2025

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What a fantastic cover. I was absolutely blown away by what I found inside the very big and unexpected envelope coming from the Post Office Services at St. Etiènne, France.

The Haddock Captain in me shouted "Tonnerre de Brest! Mais qu'est-ce que c'est que ça ????

Inside the large envelope another, smaller one, but still quite large, loomed.... Damn! I had never seen a one stamp souvenir sheet this big… 14.3 x 18.5 cm… standard framing size….

And then just a tiny legend on it. "50 ans Radio France", “on Air”...

What to make of it? Beautiful as the illustration might be, I could not make sense out of it… I immediately realised it had to do with the celebration of the 50 years of Radio France, but I did not even know what Radio France was (well, of course, a radio station, but its history???) let alone the rationale for the bande dessinée / video game illustration….. I was totally in awe and lost in perception.

And yes I was also totally grateful to Eric for such a fantastic addition to my collection. Un énorme Merci, mon ami!

The history of Radio in France goes back to 1897, when Eugène Ducretet successfully transmitted radio signals between his workshop and the Panteón, located some 4000 metres away.

Ducret would later install a radio transmitter on the 3rd stage of the Eiffel tower and pursue his experiences, what led to the iconic tower being saved from dismantling since it provided a perfect emplacement for the antennae that would ensure an ever growing communications range, which would prove paramount during the 1st world war.

Regular broadcasting from Radio Tour Eiffel, the first to do it in the Hexagon,  would go on from 1922 until 1940.

After the second world war, radio broadcasting, as in many european countries, Portugal included, became a state monopoly and in 1975, during the Presidency of  Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, the radio broadcasting sector was reorganised, a new umbrella state entity - Radio France -  being created, tasked with the mission of Informing, Educating, Disseminating Knowledge and Entertaining the French Public at large.

50 years later, Radio France keeps doing so, in spite of the substantial evolution and modification of  the radio broadcasting panorama, which now encompasses all the small and not so small regional, ex-pirate and corporate radios that fill the ether, not always with anything worth listening to (but that's my usual grumpy opinion about media in general, these days...).

Today, Radio France is responsible not only for 7 broadcasting networks, but also for maintaining two orchestras and two choirs, as part of the tools to duly fulfil its mission.

On 29AUG2025 La Poste issued the phenomenal one 1,39 € stamp  miniature sheet on the cover, celebrating the 50 Years of Radio France, which Eric tells me is the biggest single stamp sheet ever issued in France,  if not in the whole wide world, I would suspect.

The image is rich in symbolism but I confess I had to go and look at the release notes to understand it (and Eric also provided some clues) since a foreigner not familiar with the theme, such as I, would have trouble reading all those not readily decipherable semiotic hints.

And my conclusions, perhaps due to my "outsider" status, do differ slightly from the official explanation of the image, and this I find also great, for such is the beauty of art!

At the fulcrum of the image lies Radio France's headquarters building - La Maison de la Radio - designed by architect  Henry Bernard  and inaugurated in 1963 as the headquarters of the then RTF - Radiodiffusion-télévision française - itself  classified as an Historic Monument, as well as a 3D representation of the company's logo. So far, so good...

Now, as I see it, the image presents the building, lying on its side, as some sort of spacecraft travelling through the air under the power of a light that pulses at the vanishing point of the perspective, which also occupies a position in relation to the hexagonal window that can be interpreted as an allegory to the location of Paris, where Radio France Headquarters are located,  in the French hexagon.

The propelling waves are the signal transmission waves, of course.

What I don't really get is what are the three human figures doing. Just like the general ambience of the drawing, they are reminiscent of video game or comic book characters, maybe progressing through some obstacle course... who knows....

The author of the drawing, Ugo Gattoni,  Eric told me, is the same artist who created the colourful and exquisitely detailed  Paris Olympics Poster.

The First Day Postmark which replicates the logo for Radio France, was issued at Saint Étienne, a  city in the Loire département, some 60 km southwest of Lyon, with a population of  approximately 173 thousand inhabitants.

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.

COVER N. 602 -  FRANCE

Postmark: Camille Flammarion 1842-1925  1er Jour  13 Marseille  06.06.2025

Received on the 27th June 2025

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"Flammarion?... of course I'm familiar with the name"... a publishing house, mostly because J'ai Lu editions were part of the Flammarion universe and these were not that expensive, so in the days when books were to be read in paper (I'm still largely in that era, anyway...) I did read quite a number of the French classics I had to go through at university, among others,  in the pocket book configuration proposed by the J'ai Lu collection.

"No, not the publishing house... The astronomer, Camille Flammarion..."

"No, I have to confess my ignorance. Never have I heard about him..."

"Ah but you're not that off the mark. Camille, the astronomer  became known by the general public due to the efforts of his brother, Ernest, who founded the publishing house that bears their family name to divulge his brother's works. Quite successfully, it seems, for Camille's  Astronomie Populaire, published in 1879 was a true best-seller, with 100,000 copies having been sold by 1900... quite a feat for the time".

Nicolas Camille Flammarion was born in 1842 and passed away in 1925, that is to say, a century ago.

(Now, writing this boggles, awes, surprises, discomforts me - I really can't find the right word -  somewhat.

 I remember the time when  a century to me was just a step before infinity... now I look back and write about last century, which was already 25 years ago, as if it was yesterday..... just to think that I've already lived well past half a century....

 Better forget my sudden mid-age crisis and get on with the text....)

Camille was quite an interesting fellow, for although being a mathematician and a astronomer, he would also be deeply interested in spiritism, something very fashionable in the late 19th century, while also theorising about extraterrestrial life and reincarnation and authoring some science-fiction works.

Celebrating the centenary (oh... that word again...) of Camille Flammarion's demise, La Poste issued an amazingly beautiful in-taglio printed stamp with a face value of 2,10 €, that I got on a First Day Cover - 06JUN2025 - courtesy of Eric. Un grand merci, Mon ami!

The stamp, designed and engraved by Louis Genty, features the effigy of Camille Flammarion with a section of a star map in the background, showing part of the Taurus and Leo (?) constellations.

The equally attractive first day postmark, issued at Marseille, was also conceived by the same artist and it shows Flammarion at work with a telescope.

As it is usual for the French postal services to show little respect for first day or commemorative covers, by doubly obliterating the stamps with a mechanical postmark on top of the celebratory one, Eric went through the trouble of sending me this cover inside  cover #601 (see the double obliteration there???), so that I could get it in all its glory. 

It would really be a shame to have such a beautiful piece of philatelic art spoiled by a totally unjustifiable double obliteration and I am really grateful to Eric for his care and attention.

COVER N. 601 -  FRANCE

Postmark: Bureau Philatélique 69 Lyon Bellecour 23.06.2025

Posted on the 23rd June; Received on the 27th June 2025

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The camera travels from the door  into the end of the room, turning to give and overall view of the room largely occupied with a couple of desks. 

Slowly it zooms, in plongée mode, on to one of the desks, closing in on the man frantically eye-browsing through the printout of the exams and continuing to narrow the field of view until the lines that say Triglycerids and Glycemia  fill the screen…

"UFFFFF... no problem there, all within normal range... " 

The man smiles, exhales deeply and  grabs the large kraft paper envelope which he takes to the nose, inhaling the sweet fragrance reminiscent  of rose and raspberry that oozes out of the mostly red and white piece of paper glued onto the brownish envelope.

Pierre Hermé, it says on top of it...

a bed of rose petals and on it no less that 5 heart-shaped stamps ....

The man types "Pierre Hermé" on the Google window on his screen, then hits the "Pâttiseries Signatures" option.

There it is.... the pastry that fills  all the stamps on the lovely miniature sheet....

Ladies and Gentlemen , I give you 

The Ispahan:

Two disks of rose macaroon cookie, stuffed with rose petal cream, raspberries and letchis, topped with a few rose petals and raspberries for decoration...

The man salivates as he careful examines again the souvenir sheet....

He goes downstairs to the kitchen ...; the camera follows him.

From  the cupboard he takes a large glass jar, half full of small white meringue  sweets.  

As if  driven by the discomfort of an hidden but just resuscitated abstinence syndrome, he hurriedly unscrews the lid of the jar and sticks his hand as deep as possible into the mass of  small sugar and egg-white  sweets, grabbing one or two and taking it out again, reminiscent of those coin operated mechanical arms that lure kids at fair grounds and shopping malls into spending their weekly allowances in the vain hope of managing to grab another stuffed toy for the collection...

He puts the sweet into his mouth... he rolls his eyes as  the sugar dissolves slowly against his tongue and oral cavity....

" it's not rose, nor is it raspberry, much less letchi... but it'll have to do....."

On 27JAN2025, La Poste issued its customary annual heart shaped issue in atecipation of Saint Valentine's day,  with which the French Postal Operator promotes French higher end iconic  brands.

This year's the showcased brand is Pierre Hermé, a pastry brand that takes the name of its creator, an influential pastry chef  that has spread his sweet pastries all over Paris and quite a few places around the world, through his large network of shops.

As usual, the issue comprises two stamps: 1,39 €, lettre verte 20 g (the one in the souvenir sheet) illustrated with the Ispahan and  2,78 €, Lettre verte 100g, illustrated with another of Hermé's well known products: a macaroon.

The stamps are cancelled with the postmark of  Lyon's Bureau Philatélique and as usual a totally unnecessary mechanical obliteration is also present on the cover, although the operators were at least careful enough to feed the cover upside down into the machine, so that the postmark would not mar the top of the  cover where the stamps would presumably be.... something that did not work that well in this particular case....

Anyway

Un grand Merci, Eric, for all your care and attention, about which I'll talk a propos my next post...

COVER N. 597 - FRANCE

Postmark: 58 - Corbigny - Nièvre 11.06.2025

Posted on the 11th June; Received on the 18th June 2025

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Another reminder that Freedom is only a right, not an axiom! 

Un grand Merci, Jean-Pierre, non seulement pour le pli, mais aussi pour tout ce qu'il y était dedans.

As a side but very happy note, this is the 100th cover I have received from my French friends since I began this blog. Je vous remercie énormément!

Thin as air, and yet

pregnant of thought

his gaze crossed 

the infamous pentagram.

Line by line of barbed wire,

rusty, infectious, infamous,

and yet his gaze crossed it

as if transparent, obnoxiously immaterial.

Same as the single wild flower

erupting at the base of the pole, 

for  spring always bloomed

 on both sides of the fence.

Celebrating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Fields of Death, les Camps de Mort, La Poste issued on 25APR2025 the stamp on the cover, illustrated with a self-explanatory image of a fence and the legend "1945 Libération des Camps 2025".

Lest we forget...

COVER N. 594 - FRANCE

Postmark: Bureau Philatélique 69 - Lyon Bellecour 07.06.2025

Posted on the 7th June; Received on the 11th June 2025

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Batman and Super Girl... oh, I hear another of my childhood memories coming up....

Un grand Merci Eric!

There were things that I wasn’t especially keen of, when I was a kid, just six or seven years old.

I still remember my mother calling me frantically from the balcony to get back home for it was bath time, something I considered the last of my priorities whenever I was out on the street playing with my friends. 

Cowboys and Indians or Super heroes and villains we were and it is well known, Matt Dillon (not the actor; the real one, the one in the comics strips) Cisco Kid or Batman never took a bath or even a shower… at least I have no recollection of ever seeing a square of a comic strip of any of these monuments showing them wasting time with their mothers scrubbing the hell out of their backs and heads….

Another of the dreaded wastes of time (not to mention dignity) was the regular visit to the barber, with my father, in order to get the hair cut. 

Not that I had already made my mind about letting my hair grow to keep pace with time and fashion, as I would some years later. What annoyed me most, was the itching sensation on the back of my neck I was always left with after the barber had finished his job and talcum powered it to quench the burning sensation caused by the razor on my tender child skin.

One day my father called me: “Pedrito, let’s go to the barber’s”. 

Knowing there was absolutely no point in refusing the invitation, I put on my most fastidious face and went along down the stairs into the street with him. 

At the end of the street we took a left turn….

Usually we would turn right, whenever going to the barber’s…

My father noticed my amused look, and told me we would go to another barber, this time.

And so we walked for a while longer. My father was a keen walker and I got this habit from him, I guess, as I too am quite fond of getting from here to there by putting one foot ahead of the other in sequence….

After a while we reached our destination.

Both barber chairs were taken, so we would have to wait for our turn.

The barber looked at me: “Do you like to read comics?”; “Yes, sure.” I answered him.

“While you wait, pick any of those and enjoy it” said he pointing to a pile of comic magazines on a table.

I was flabbergasted. Boy, this was even better than the library where my father and I would sometimes go, to get books to read.

When finally my turn came, I did not even noticed that my hair was being cut and, in the end, I did not feel the dreaded itching either, for I was anticipating  the moment I would arrive in the room I shared with my sister and lay on my bed reading the second hand SuperMan comic that my father bought from the barber to offer me.

From that day on, visiting that Barber, Mr. Buchinho, If I still remember his name correctly, not to have my hair cut, but to buy another of the second hand magazines he sold, would be one of my permanent aims in life.

Batman, Superman, Archeiro Verde (the Green Hornet) Flash in their Brazilian issues  and especially Mundo de Aventuras, a Portuguese magazine that published many of the King Features Syndicate strips, would be piled on my bedside table and inside the drawers where I kept my most precious treasures.

 All the coins I managed to collect would be converted into comic magazines, and I was such a good customer of Mr. Buchinho, that he even, now and then, offered me the odd magazine, free of charge.

One day, my father, for Christmas, gave me an illustrated book with the history of Buffalo Bill. Classy thing it was, half text and half illustrations. I absolutely loved it. There were three more in the collection David Crocket, Daniel Boone and Kit Carson. For my birthday, I got the first from my parents and the second from a friend. But there was one still left, and I simply had to have it. More: I knew where to get it. There was one available at the local bookshop, downtown just a couple of kilometres from where I lived.

But I had no money. I had to gather 20 Escudos, an exorbitant sum  for my standards…..

Close to my school, the owner of a shop (I can’t remember what was sold there) had a card overhanging the door where it was stated that comics were bought and sold.

I reunited all my magazines, my most precious treasure, and put them into several plastic bags. Sweating from the effort of walking from home to the shop with the added weight, I came to this shop and asked the owner how much he would be willing to offer me for all my books.

I was counting on 50 Escudos, for there were much more than a hundred magazines there and if he would sell them at the price I had payed for them - 2,5 escudos each - he would have a decent profit.

He looked at me, passed and enquiring look through my plastic bags and said “20 escudos”.

I was being robbed, but he had hit the magic button…. I took the banknote with the effigy of Saint Anthony on it and ran as fast as I could to the book shop downtown.

That night, Superman was dead and Kit Carson was the name of the Kryptonite.

DC Comics, the publisher that holds the rights to Batman and Super Girl (and a number of other icons of the comics universe) was founded in 1935 as National Allied Publications.

Batman appeared for the first time in a DC comics magazine in 1939, fathered by Bob Kane (drawings) and Bill Finger (text).

The first story of Super Girl, the cousin of  Super Man, conceived by  Otto Binder (text) and Al Plastino (drawings) was published in 1959.

La Poste issued a Collector's four stamp set (Letrre Verte 20 g) dedicated to DC Comics heroes on 19MAY2025. Further to Batman and SuperGirl, the set comprises stamps illustrated with Wonder Woman and SuperMan.

COVER N. 589 - FRANCE

Postmark:  Bureau Philatélique 48 Mende RP 12.05.2025

Posted on the  12h May; Received on the 19th May 2025

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I do find the souvenir sheet that La Poste has issued for the celebrations of that Opera of all Operas, Carmen, Bizet's chef d'oeuvre, absolutely delightful, so I was very happy to get another outstanding cover with this piece of philatelic art on it.

Un grand Merci Daniel.

I've written about this particular issue on the entry regarding cover #571. At the time I mentioned that the flower in the bottom centre of the illustration was that of an eucalyptus.

Well, on one of my recent walks along the Portuguese coast, I came across a bunch of trees in several towns through which I've passed on the way that made me think I was completely off the mark here. 

I now believe this to be a flower of a Metrosideros species plant, like the one I shot in Praia de Santa Cruz (Photo at the bottom of the post).

These look absolutely amazing when in bloom, especially in the warm light of the end of the day, with the red glowing in stark contrast with the rich, dep green of the foliage. a great sight!

The souvenir sheet, here obliterated with a postmark from the Bureau Philatélique of the city of Mende, in region of Occitania, in the South of France, was issued on 27MAR2025, celebrating the 150th anniversary of Bizet's Carmen

Time for a Seguidilla, I'd think....

COVER N. 586 - FRANCE 

Postmark:  Musée de la Poste - La fabrique du temps Paris 27.05.2025

Posted on  the  27th May; Received on the 13th May 2025

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Merci Roland, for another cover with a nice cancellation mark. Those guys at the musée should know better than to get the cover double cancelled, but it is not your fault!

Pets. the best friends of humans, so it is said...

I have nothing against them, of course... it's their owners who sometimes baffle me....

I love animals... that's probably why I have some difficulties with pets. I understand their value as companions, helpers, healers, work mates, all the extraordinary things animals can do which help us humans in most dire and difficult situations... but then I see dogs locked in apartments for life, ferrets wore by the owner around the neck while strolling through the shopping mall as it were a live scarf, hamsters and birds locked in tiny cages or small fishes swimming round and round inside a glass bowl large enough to hold my fruit salad... and it gets me mainly sad...

Then there's that thing: dog owner; cat owner; pig owner....  animals should have no owners... they're part of the same world we live in... 

Don't get me wrong. I am an omnivorous fellow, I do eat meat, and I am aware that animals raised for meat producing are most times raised in appalling conditions all over the world. But that's another question and another problem altogether.

Pets are not food but pets are also not human, so they should not be humanised to a degree that defies common sense. Dogs should not be carried on one's back in some sort of rucksack  as it they were babies... damn it, they have legs and feet, don't they?

Maybe it is me, but whenever in my morning walks I see people  talking to dogs as if they were actually babies, or children, or even grown ups  ( and I do see it all the time)  I find it oh so very strange... whenever I see a cat with painted nails, or a dog with a fancy hairdo...

As I said I completely understand that pets can fill an important void in one's life... just respect them for what they are, that's the sort of humanisation I think pets and humans do need!

In 2024 La Posts issued a series of four - one for each season -  Lettre Verte 20g tariffed "Collectors" sets,  dedicated to "Nos Fidèles Compagnons", (our faithful companions), dogs and cats. 

Each set comprised 2 x two different stamps, one illustrated with a cat and the other with a dog. The two stamps on the cover that Roland sent me are the Printemps (Spring) issue, dated of 02APR2024, which emphasized the benefits of animal therapy for sick or stress affected people.

The very nice pictorial cancellation of the Musée de la Poste in Paris was used to postmark the stamps.

COVER N. 584 - FRANCE 

Postmark:  1945 - 2025 Libération des Camps 1er jour 38 Fontaine La Poste 25.04.2025

Posted on  the  25th April; Received on the 8th May 2025

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Fitting that a cover like this one should knock on my door on VE day in Europe, after having been mailed on the 25th April (ANZAC day; Anniversario della liberazione in Italy and Dia da Liberdade, in my own country).

Particularly fitting, now that fascism 2.0 is slowly spreading like an ink blotch on wet paper.... 

Particularly fitting, now that a huge Camp de Mort is being kept and enforced live on TV, under the eyes of the world, to the total indifference of the same world.... children, women, men, young, old...no need for gas chambers here.... there are means just as effective and just as or even more cruel, for they prolong the suffering of the condemned, whose only sin is having been born: bombing; deprivation... of shelter, food, water, medical supplies....

Particularly fitting when terrorism is fought with terrorism!

Particularly fitting when unjustified aggression and invasion is again dotting fields of Europe not with poppies but with rows of white crosses...

Particularly fitting when Universities are persecuted, books are once again censored, Science is questioned...

Un grand Merci, Eric. Lest we forget!

In July 1944, Soviet troops found and liberated the first of the many Death Camps that the Nazi regime had installed throughout occupied Europe: Majdanek, in Poland.

It would take the allies almost one year to liberate all the Camps of Infamy, the last, on the 8th May 1945, would be Teresienstadt, in Czecoslovakia, famous for the "rich cultural life" prisoners had access to and participated in, as a Nazi cover up for the day to day atrocities and the appalling living conditions they had to endure.

Celebrating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Fields of Death, les Camps de Mort, La Poste issued on 25APR2025 the stamp on the cover, illustrated with a self-explanatory image of a fence and the legend "1945 Libération des Camps 2025".

Lest we Forget!

COVER N. 576 - FRANCE 

Postmark: Pavillon France Expo 2025 Osaka La Poste 1er jour 11.04.2025

Posted on the 11the April; Received on the 21st April 2025

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Stamps often invoke memories, at least in me, as I'm sure it is perceivable from some of my posts of this blog...

I got this nice FDC from France and, as usual, my first look was at the rather striking stamp... Expo 2025 Osaka says the legend on the stamps top sheet margin....

1970, the year I landed, on its very first day, in the island of Santa Maria, Azores, for an almost 4 year stay that would in many ways mark me for the rest of my life.

My family, like most airport worker's family, lived in one of the tin houses that had been left there by the American military who built the airport during the second world war. It was a  nice house (once you got used to the sound of the rain on the tin roof,  and emptying the rat traps from the pantry) and for the first time I had my own room, my private universe, filled with comics books, books from the Gulbenkian itinerating library (with its beloved Citroën H van) and my first model aircraft kits.

My house was geminated with a symmetrical one, wherein lived the family of one of my father's colleagues.

This gentleman collected stamps. Once he showed me his collection and how he would carefully file his stamps in an album using black hawid mounts.

I had to have one such album for myself.... I was already collecting stamps, I had a few in a binder but nothing comparable to the outstanding album my neighbour had shown me, which he had rather filled up with Portuguese stamps from way behind up to the day.....

So I asked my father if I could have one such album, and if I could also start collecting Portuguese stamps. I got a yes on both accounts, but the album would have to wait, for it could only be bought on the mainland, but I do remember that the vey first issue that my father ever bought me was the one dedicated to the Osaka Expo of 1970.

Incidentally, the album would come a couple of years later for Xmas, as well as a couple of packs of Hawid mounts.

My original album is long gone, lost in the bends of a rather twisty growing up road and I really only started to look at stamps again with interested eyes a few years ago, when I started this blog as a way to fill the available free time that the horrific Covid pandemic suddenly imparted us all with. 

But looking at the beautiful stamp on Roland’s cover, made me go back in time, to a time and place that I particularly hold dear and that is worth much more than the face value on the stamp... Un grand Merci, cher ami!

The 36th world expo will be taking place at Osaka, Japan, from the 13th April to the 13 October 2025.

France being a participant, la Poste, on 21APR2025,  issued the 2,10 celebratory stamp on the cover, illustrated with a view of the French Pavilion, which is designed around the concept of "A Hymn to Love", and aims at making people question themselves about their relation with the world at large: themselves, the others and the environment.

Guiding people on their journey is the red thread of fate, (a promenade stairway that takes visitors through the pavilion's different levels) an eastern Asiatic tradition centred around an invisible thread that guides people to meet and connect.

The First day cancellation is illustrated with the logo of the French Participation in the Expo.

COVER N. 572 - FRANCE

Postmark: Musée de La Poste - La Fabrique du Temps Paris 03.04.2025

Posted on the 3rd April; Received on the 9th April 2025

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Some time ago, given that my "probation period" time was already completed,  I decided I would try my hand at becoming an Originating Member of the London Cover Circuit Club.

To his aim, I again  pestered the Club's President, with several mails asking for information on procedures, and yet again I was answered with all the kindness and willingness to help that I have always experienced on my email exchanges with Monsieur Roland Montagne. 

Further to the electronic exchange, Roland made sure I would get my package of Club information inside this impeccable C5 envelope with no less than 6 stamps on it with an interesting postmark that I hadn't yet seen, from a museum I have not yet visited.... 

Un grand Merci pour toute votre disponibilité et amitié, Roland!

Stamps left to right:

Haguenau is an Alsatian Commune located in the Gran Est region of France. Founded in the 12th century its origins are traceable to 1115, the year when construction began for an hunting lodge for Duke Frederick, the One-Eyed, on the forests that the Swabian Dukes had aquired.

Being located in Alsace means that its ownership has shifted between France and Germany over the years, only to be definitively (hopefully :-)) handed over to France after the end of the 1st World War, by the Treaty of Versailles.

Celebrating the 1900 years of its establishment, la Poste issued on 06JUL2015 the beautiful 0,68 € stamp on the cover, illustrated with landmarks of the city, l to r: Musée Alsacien; Tour des Pêcheurs; Bureau de Tourisme.

1,16€ stamp for domestic service, lettre verte, part of the two stamp 2023 Chinese New year issue, that began to circulate on 14JAN2023, dedicated to the Year of the Rabbit. The companion stamp, with a face value of 1,80€ for international service can be seen here.

1,08 € stamp issued on 12APR2021 in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the publication of the famous Le Petit Prince novel by Antoine de Saint-Exupèry, featuring one of the wonderful illustrations that the author also produced for his book.

The UN declared 2011 as the  International Year of Chemistry, while at the same time highlighting the role of women scientists for the advancement in this particular field of knowledge, for 2011 also marked the 100th anniversary of Marie Curie's second Nobel prize (the first having been awarded in 1911 both to her and her husband Pierre)

Honouring the occasion, La Poste issued the 0,87 stamp on the cover, illustrated with an image of Marie Curie in her laboratory and the legend 2011 Année International de la Chimie

Courrèges is an high end French fashion brand. La Poste chose it for the 2016 issue of the Valentine's day series featuring French luxury brands initiated in 2000. Two satmps were issued on 15JAN2016,  with face values of 0,70 (on the cover) and 1,40 €.

0,01 € Marianne stamp of the 23JUL2018 issue.

The Postmark was applied at the Musée de La Poste, in Paris. 

Inaugurated in 1946, the Musée was relocated to its current location at 34, boulevard de Vaugirard, in 1973.

COVER N. 571 - FRANCE

Postmark: 150 ans de l'opéra Carmen Georges Bizet 1er jour 27.03.2025

Posted on the 27th March; Received on the 10th April 2025

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The beautiful gipsy lies dead on the ground while the assassin, knife still dripping blood from the treacherous wound it inflicted on the tender flesh, comes round to the immensity of what he just did, while being carried away by the soldiers...

Vous pouvez m'arrêter.

C'est moi qui l'ai tuée !

Ah ! Carmen ! ma Carmen adorée !

Thus the drama ends and the curtain falls, after one of the many outstanding arias and duets that give life to probably the most famous of all operas: Georges Bizet’s (1838 - 1875) magnificent chef d'oeuvre, Carmen, based on a novel by French writer, archaeologist and historian  Prosper Mérimée (1803 - 1870).

A classic story of love and betrayed love, with a perfect triangle (well a square, if you count Zuninga, the Dragons lieutenant), centred on an hedonist beauty, whose charms no man can resist.

I first heard an aria from Carmen many years ago, included in one of those "best of the opera" 33 rpm that were issued by publishers like the Reader's Digest... I am not absolutely sure, but think it was Callas singing the Habanera.... I must have been in my teens and I absolutely loathed it... not the music, but the voice. I know, I know... it is probably a sin or an act of hubris, but to this day I am not a fan of Callas' timbre... 

But over the years I heard the beautiful aria sang by many other singers and  even if I never had the chance to watch a live performance of this masterpiece, I too fell for the spell, not of the beautiful free minded gipsy, but of its outstanding musicality.

How can one not love the Seguidilla, or that heartbreaking  "Carmen il est temps encore..." of the last duet... sheer musicality, sheer beauty...

Carmen was first taken to the stage on the 3rd March 1875, 150 years ago.

Such a significant anniversary of a masterpiece, could only be honoured with a matching masterpiece, so la Poste issued on 27MAR2025 the outstanding souvenir sheet that Thanks to Eric and André, I am very happy to possess in my collection.

Un grand, grand merci, Eric et André!

Upon receiving the cover, I was overjoyed to notice that the sheet was autographed by its designer and engraver Ms. Sarah Lazarevic, who, I learned upon researching her name,  has designed quite a few issues for la Poste. 

On the polychrome in-taglio image, we have Carmen (who is the main feature of the 2,10 € stamp) dancing (could it be the Seguidilla?) while D. Jose, in his Dragons regiment attire watches, totally enraptured.

A couple of red eucalyptus flowers, entangled in each other, fully symbolic in their form and colour, separates the two lovers, while, on the background , La Giralda, Seville's Cathedral Tower, overlooks the two characters, for a sense of place, but also, I'm led to think, symbolising the  the established morals and values transgressed by the dramatic pair.

The First Day Postmark was issued at Paris, the city were Carmen was premièred.

COVER N. 567 - FRANCE

Postmark: Acrobates et Jongleurs -  Fête du Timbre 69 - Oullins - Pierre - Bénite - La Poste 08.03.2025 

Posted on the 8th March; Received on the 21st March 2025

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Circus and street artists... probably two of the toughest professions amidst the performing arts professionals.... most of the times highly physical, but also highly seasonal, for we only seem to remember that there is one such thing as "The Circus" around Christmas holidays.

That is the time when the circus caravans "invade" the fairgrounds with their tents and lights and mobile homes for the joy of youngsters and their parents and of the popcorn sellers outside.

This, I now remember, was not exactly the case when I was a wee lad. And I say "now remember" because looking at the very beautiful stamps on the cover that was so kindly sent me, (un grand merci, Eric!) got me into a sudden flashback mode, that took me to my days in the city of Faro, in the Algarve, when I was 5 or 6 years old, some time of the year other than that when pine trees bloom with snowy decorations in places where it does not snow....

The kid would not dare take his eyes from the man with the very long balance pole in his hands, as he took step after step in a way that although seeming  unexpectedly hesitant was but a form of ensuring that the sole of the foot held on to the thin tight cable that ran between two high poles, erect on the  fairground.

"How come he will not fall? '", the kid marvelled at the slowly moving figure and wondered... by now the man had reached the other pole at the end of the rope, down which he gracefully glided.

Once on the ground, the tightrope walker thanked the small crowd that clapped, of which the kid was  part.

The assistant brought a monocycle. The walker climbed the pole again and once at the top the monocycle was handed to him as well as the balance pole.

The kid could not believe his eyes.... as if walking the cable wasn't difficult enough...?!!!!

In a matter of a few minutes the man crossed again to the other pole, on his monocycle, after going back and forth a few times while mid-way across, what awed the kid even more and made him fear that a fall would ensue and with it a most terrible sight.... 

The girl, about the kid's sister age, passed across the audience with the upturned man's hat, wherein some small coins were deposited by some of those watching... not by the kid though, as much as he had wanted to... he had long before spent his only 1 escudo coin, that his father had given him in the afternoon, in a delicious ice cream cone with pastel coloured balls of icy cream, that tasted all the same, irrespective of the colour, and which the seller would take out of the large and aptly decorated icebox mounted on the front of a 50 cc motorbike, which spew ill smelling bluish smoke, whenever the engine was running....

Today, the kid is no longer…

As he types on the keyboard, looking at the stamps that evoked his happy childhood, by the red traffic lights of some of the main arteries in the big city where he episodically goes to, jugglers perform their art in the quest for a coin... some things hardly change, even if times do, come to think about it...

Occurring yearly since 1937, La Fête du Timbre simply aims at promoting Philately in its many guises, making it known to the public at large.

The event is organised by the Fédération Française des Associations Philatéliques, in association with Phil@poste (the La Poste body responsible for stamp printing and issuing) and ADPhile (an association whose objective is to foster knowledge dissemination through stamps and philately), and this year it took place over the weekend of 8-9 March.

For the occasion, La Poste issued the beautiful souvenir sheet and stamp on the cover, dedicated to Street arts, thus beginning a new thematic cycle, after that of the previous Fêtes, dedicated to sustainable transportation.

The souvenir sheet contains a single 2,78€ stamp illustrated with a  couple of tightrope walkers and acrobats, in an updated version of what the kid once saw in Faro....

The 1,39€ stamp features a monocycle ridding juggler performing his act in front of the crowd, while a hat is passed around.... as I said above, some things hardly change, even if times do....

The nice first day postmark, issued at Oullins-Pierre-Bénite, a Commune of the city of Lyon and one of the 64 cities that participated in the event, is also graced with a contour drawing of an acrobat juggler.