Oh la la France’s 2024 stamps!

by catpaw | 10 May, 2024 | country Stamps, Stamps

The “ol la la France’s 2024 stamps” too much? I’ve been waiting years to use it and I won’t apologise. France, as expected, has a beautiful portfolio of stamps to chase down.  The year is filled with so many stories. Normally, I start the year as soon as La Poste announces the January stamps, sometime late fall, but this year, I wasn’t able to get to them. That means, I played catch up with their hefty program. 

It’s not so much the number of stamps, as much as the information I uncover for each stamp and designer. I have a love affair going with La Poste, they just don’t know it. The sheer depth of France’s annual program offers some interesting challenges in parsing the details and deciding what to share now and what to save for future articles. To say I have an embarrassment of riches regarding France is an understatement. 

After savouring this year’s program, I’ve already mapped out a couple of independent articles based on a few of the late spring early summer releases. The stories behind these issues are fascinating and occasionally terrifying. The first article, hopefully, will be The Story of Marianne, a detailed look at the history of the Marianne stamp and her designers over the decades. 

Marianne is one of those stamps I didn’t appreciate in my younger collecting days because I didn’t understand the history behind the image. Once I began digging around in the French Archives and reading about the many artists involved in her design, I was hopelessly hooked. It is an amazing stamp. I began doing research for this article back in September 2023. Still more to do, and a few more images to source. But here’s a teaser:

The other articles will deal with The Wreck of the Medusa and The Beast of Gévaudan. 

These ones are, um, well … gruesome. Consider this a warning. Not everyone will want to read the stories of the Medusa or the Beast.  Both are pretty graphic but a hell of a pair of stories.

I’m midway through a book written by one of the survivors of the Medusa and have taken a stab at the second book. I’m also slogging through various contemporary newspapers, to create a proper timeline of events. And wow, is it a story of Republican vs Royalist France. The worse of humanity on display. 

The Beast is the story of a mysterious creature that terrorised the French countryside starting in 1764. And happily, the French archives are brimming with contemporary accounts. 

Early illustration of the Beast Publication date: 1765 Contributor: Magné de Marolles, Gervais-François (1727-1795).

This article will come after Marianne and the Medusa – I’m saving a classic monster horror story for the last. 

So off you go to enjoy the year. Grab something to drink and a plate of your favourite snacks and settle in and enjoy the read. 

Cheers
Catpaw

January

Our Faithful Companions – Winter

Series: animal | pets

6 stamps in booklet
offset

Designer: Bruno Ghiringhelli
Graphic Design & Communication Lyon – When you look for yourself, you find me! (brughi.fr)
PHILAPOSTE is just one Bruno’s many clients. He created his first stamp, 20th Century- Communication, 23 years ago in 2001. Since then, Bruno has created almost 150 stamps, including a set for Andorra. His 2022 souvenir sheet Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899) won most beautiful stamp of the year 2022.

Photographers: L Klein / ML Hubert, Famille
Graillot Deenaix. BL / Naturagency.

Release date: January 2, 2024

2023 Stamp Election

typography

Release date: January 8, 2024

Land Art, Nature Meets Art

Series: landscapes

12 stamps in booklet, cancel
photogravure

Cover photos: 

• White pebble spiral on rock / Adobe stock
• Red lollipops on stick against green grass / Istock
• Aerial view of a – heart-shaped green grove / Getty Images.

Images first row: 

•  © Arnaud Chochon / HansLucas
• Spiral of Infinity / Adobe stock 
• Heart-shaped daisies on grass / Getty Images
• White pebble spiral on rock / Adobe stock
• Circle made of pebbles in the sand / Adobe stock
• Spiral of Autumn leaves / Adobe stock

Images second row: 

• Aerial view of a heart-shaped grove / Getty Images
• Land art (leaves shaped like green and red flowers) / Istock
• Rock Arch on the beach / Getty Images
• Land art Bird Symbol / Adobe stock
• Land art Mandala / Adobe stock

Designer: Agence Huitième Jour
huitieme jour | (huitieme-jour.com)

Release date: January 8, 2024

Marianne de L’Avenir 2023 – 85 Years of the Ceres Type

Special 2 Sheet Booklet
Series: Marianne

14 stamps in booklet
Intaglio

The new Marianne of the Future, unveiled in November 2023, replaces the 2018 Marianne by Yseult Digan (YZ) and engraved by Elsa Catelin. Artist Olivier Balez’s Marianne of the future s a symbol for ecological change. 

With this “Marianne of the future”, with her peaceful gaze, her hair blending in with a vegetated area, the graphic designer Olivier Balez wanted to “participate in the story of the climate emergency without falling into something anxiety-provoking”. “She is the Marianne of the ecological transition, her long diagonal neck symbolizes the impetus towards the future,” explains to AFP this author and illustrator of press, children’s literature and comics. 
Here is the face of the new Marianne of postage stamps, unveiled this Tuesday by Macron (lefigaro.fr)

Designer: Olivier Balez
Engraver: Pierre Bara

Release date: January 

Mosaic Crafts

Series: Métiers d’Art  

1 stamp, souvenir sheet, cancel, sheets of 12, Philatelic souvenir, info sheet
Intaglio

The tiles displayed in the stamps are from the 1919 Pavillon du Verdurier in Limoges. 

Mathilde Laurent composed its models from two mosaics selected by Philaposte to which various gestures of the mosaicist’s trade were added, including the cutting and installation of the tesserae. Mathilde Laurent autographs the mosaic craft stamp – Engraved Stamp Art (artdutimbregrave.com)

The hands in the image were based on the designer’s mosaicist friend’s, Marie Goyat, hands. Goyat also wrote the info page for La Poste MOSAIC CRAFTS | The ink square (lecarredencre.fr)

This series celebrates skilled artistic professions. The series began in 2016, and to date the following crafts have been featured:

• stone sculptor
• jeweller
• ironworker
• cabinetmaker
• leather worker
• crystal cutter
• bookbinder
• organ builder
• metal engraver
• stained glass artist
• feather worker
• luthier
• fan maker 

Designer: Mathilde Laurent 
Larent’s first stamps were the The Cattle of Our Regions – Rare and Little Known Breeds set from 2014.   
Engraver: Elsa Catelin 

Release date: January 15, 2024

Lancôme Heart Stamp – 25th edition

Series: valentine’s day | heart

2 stamps, cancel, souvenir sheet, two sheets of 12, press kit
Photogravure

Each year a different French company is asked to design the annual Valentine’s Day stamp. Previous years saw Chanel, Givenchy, Lanvin, Hermès, Baccarat, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Balmain, Sonia Rykiel, Guerlain and agnès b. each interpret the heart stamp.

Designer: © Lancôme

Release date: January 22, 2024

André Franquin (1924 – 1997)

Series: comics 

1 stamp, cancel, sheets of 15
Photogravure

Creator of Gaston Lagaffe comic. Gaston Lagaffe – Official site
The stamp shows a self-portrait that appeared in Bon Pour – dessins de famille. 
Belgian born artist André Franquin’s characters also appeared on Belgium stamps in 2008 Spirou and Fantasio and 2017 Gaston.

Designer: Bruno Ghiringhelli.
Ghiringhelli has designed over 140 stamps for La Poste. His first design was 20th Century- Communication (2001).

Release date: January 29, 2024

Lunar New Year – Year of the Dragon

Series: New Year

2 stamps, 2 souvenir sheets of 4, 1 souvenir sheet of 2 with cover
photogravure

On January 26, 2024, artist Chen Jiang Hong signing
from 10:30 a.m. to 13:00 p.m. and from 14:00 p.m. to 16:00 p.m.

Location: 13 bis rue des Mathurins, 75009 PARIS

Artist: Chen Jiang Hong  陈江洪
Jiang Hong, a graduate of the Beijing School of Fine Arts, has made his home in Paris since 1987 when he entered the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Paris.  Chen Jiang-Hong | Galerie Taménaga (tamenaga.com)

He is an illustrator, painter and writer, with over 30 children’s books to his credit. 

Designer: Bruno Ghiringhelli

Release date: January 29, 2024

February

Marianne of the Future Poster – Paris-Philex 2024  

Series: Marianne

4 stamps on sheet
intaglio 

Every year the French post office issues a number of fabulous posters, special stamp releases and different souvenir items. One day, I’ll make it to a Paris-Philex and die a happy cat. 

Designer: Olivier Balez
Balez has an interesting page on his Marianne and the sketches he made to create his interpretation of this iconic French image.  Marianne – Olivier Balez Olivier Balez
Engraver Pierre Bara
Bara’s first engraved stamp was for Saint-Pierre and Miquelon when he engraved A. Bailhache’s La Jeanne, 2010. The following year he designed and engraved his first stamp, Henri Mouhot, 2011 for La Poste.

Release date: February 5, 2024

Tropical Flowers

Series: flora 

4 stamps, 3 souvenir sheets, philatelic souvenir, sheets of 15
postmark from 5 different cities
Photogravure

• Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia)
• Bougainvillea (Bougainvillea sp)
• Hibiscus (Hibiscus sp)
• Balisier (Heliconia bihai)

Designer: Natacha Birds
This is Natacha’s first stamp set. 

Release date: February 12, 2024

Animals in Colour

Series: fauna | animals

12 stamps in booklet
Photogravure

Designer: Stéphanie Ghinéa
Ghinéa has created over 80 stamps for Andorra (Fr) and France.  In a 2020 interview, Ghinéa explained what she thought made successful stamp design:

By its format and function, a successful stamp must be legible, understandable and synthetic. It is the vehicle of a certain image of our culture through the theme addressed. It bears witness to the time by the way in which the theme is evoked. At the time of his show he begins his own life, his own particular journey.

Whether it presents or commemorates a story, an event, a character, an epic, a place… A successful stamp for me is a stamp that takes us into his universe, that awakens our imagination and our curiosity.
Stéphanie Ghinéa: “I like pictorial and graphic representations, such as Olivier Debré’s stamp” (lemonde.fr)

Release date: February 12, 2024

Missak Manouchian (1906 – 1944)

Series: WW2 | Resistance heroes

4 stamps on two sheets
offset

Armenian poet and activist who survived the 1915 Armenian genocide. His parents were slaughtered in the killings, but Manouchian and his brother survived and entered an orphanage in Lebanon until 1925 when they made their way to Paris.

When the Nazis invaded France, he joined the resistance group Francs-tireurs et partisans – main-d’œuvre immigrée (FTP-MOI).  On November 1943 he, and his friends, were caught and executed February 21,1944. 

Designer: Bruno Ghiringhelli 

Release date: February 21, 2024

Michel Legrand (1932-2019)

Series: music 

Photogravure

French composer, jazz musician and conductor

Designer: Mathieu Persan
MATHIEU PERSAN – Illustrations (barbudesign.com)
Previous stamp design Raymond Devos, Comedian (2022)

Release date: February 26, 2024

POKÉMON

Series: cartoons

1 stamp, sheets of 15, cancel
offset

Designer: Étienne Théry

Release date: February 28, 2024

March

200th Anniversary of the Birth of Julie-Victoire Daubié

Series: Women’s rights | feminism

1 stamp, sheets of 15, cancel
Intaglio

1st woman to obtain the baccalaureate (August 17, 1861). Journalist and women’s rights activist. Wrote The Poor Woman in the Nineteenth Century, 1867.

But how can we emancipate ourselves without education? In terms of the education or training of girls, everything, or almost everything, remained to be invented.  Julie-Victoire Daubié

Designer/engraver: Sarah Lazarevic
Design was based on a nineteenth-century black-and-white photograph of Daubié. Lazarevic tucked notes into the margins notes about Daubié’s baccalaureate.

Release date: March 11, 2024

Stamp Day 2024 – Boating

Series: philately | sports

1 stamp on souvenir sheet
Photogravure

The STAMP FESTIVAL 2024 will took place March 9 and 10, 2024 in 85 different cities around France. 

Artist: Marie Détrée
Previous stamps by Détrée include the TAAF The Astrolabe and the Aurora Australis (2022)

Designer: Valérie Besser

Release date: March 11, 2024

Stamp Festival 2024 – Aboard a Sailboat

Series: philately | sports

1 stamp, cancel, sheets of 15
intaglio

Designer/engraver: Pierre Albuisson
Albuisson is the grand-père of French engraving. Founder and current president of the association for Stamp Engraving “Art du timbre Gravé”, he is one of the pre-eminent engravers in France. His work has appeared on stamps from France, French Polynesia, TAAF, Mali, Monaco and Wallis and Futuna. His first stamp was Palace of the Postman Cheval, 1984. The Palace will once again appear on a stamp in April this year. 

Release date: March 11, 2024

50th Anniversary of Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport

Series: aviation 

1 stamp, 2 cancels, sheets of 15
offset

This stamp features both the Eiffel Tower and Paul Andreu’s Terminal 1, nicknamed “Camembert” of the Charles De Gaul Airport. The airport previously appeared on a stamp in 1974, marking the inauguration of Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport.

 
Designer Paul Lengellé
Engraver: Pierre Forget 

Artist: Déborah Desmada  
Desmada trained at Beaux-Arts in Paris, first in fashion and then later illustration. 
Designer: Studio Pekelo

Release date: March 18, 2024

Marianne of the Future – PARIS-PHILEX 2024

Series: philately | Marianne

1 stamp, cancel, sheets of 15
Photogravure

PARIS-PHILEX 2024 will take place from May 30 to June 1, Hall 5.1, Paris expo, Porte de Versailles, Paris 15^e

As usual, a number of designers and artists will be attending and signing their stamps. Among attendee will be Marianne of the Future designer Olivier Balez, May 30 for both a morning and afternoon signing. 

Designer: Olivier Balez
Engraver: Pierre Bara 

Release date: March 18, 2024

Around 150 Years of Impressionism with the Musée D’Orsay  

Series: Art | Impressionism

12 stamps in a booklet, cancel
Photogravure

150 years ago, on April 15, 1874, the first Impressionist exhibition opened in Paris.
“Hungry for independence”, Monet, Renoir, Morisot, Degas, Pissarro, Sisley and Cézanne decided to break the rules by organising their own exhibitions, outside the official channels: Impressionism was born.
In the spring of 2024, the Musée d’Orsay will celebrate this anniversary with the exhibition “Paris 1874. Inventing Impressionism”, comprising some 130 works, including masterpieces of this movement. With the largest Impressionist collection in the world, the Musée d’Orsay will make this anniversary a national event, by also lending nearly 180 major works to some thirty museums across France. AROUND 150 YEARS OF IMPRESSIONISM WITH THE MUSÉE D’ORSAY | The ink square (lecarredencre.fr)

Artwork used on this set:

• Eva Gonzalès A lodge for the Italians, circa 1874 | M’O exhibition.
• Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Clownesse Cha-U-Kao, 1895 | loan Le Cannet, Bonnard Museum
• Auguste Renoir Ball at the Moulin de la Galette, 1876 | M’O exhibition.
• Camille Pissarro White Jelly, 1873 | M’O exhibition.
• Paul Cézanne Still Life with Open Drawer, 1877 – 1879 | loan from St-Denis de la Réunion, Léon Dierx Museum.
• Berthe Morisot On a Bench in the Bois de Boulogne, 1894 | loan Albi, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Museum.
• Charles Angrand Les Villottes, 1887-1889 | loan Yvetot, Musée des Ivoires.
• Gustave Caillebotte Part of a Boat, circa 1877-78 | loan Nantes, Musée d’arts de Nantes.
• Claude Monet Poppies, 1873 | M’O exhibition.
• Alfred Sisley The Boat during the Flood, Port-Marly, 1876 | loan Tourcoing, MUba Eugène Leroy.
• Edouard Manet Olympia, 1863.
• Vincent Van Gogh, Van Gogh’s Room in Arles, 1889.
• The cover The Blue Water Lilies, 1916 – 1919 by Claude Monet

Designer: Stéphanie Ghinéa

Release date: March 25, 2024

Eugène Ionesco (1909 – 1994)

Series: writers 

1 stamp, cancel, sheets of 15
Photogravure

Master of Absurdity  
30th anniversary of his death.

Romanian French playwright was a leading figure in the French avant-garde theatre. Ionesco previously appeared on a Romanian stamp in 1994.

 
Designer: E. Palade 

Designer: Emmanuel Vedrenne 

Release date: March 29, 2024

April

Agnès Varda 1928-2019

Series: film | cat lover

1 stamp, cancel, sheets of 15
Photogravure

“It’s everything you need in life: a computer, a camera and a cat.” AGNÈS VARDA

Photographer, filmmaker and visual artist. Called the Godmother of the French New Wave. 

To the very end, Varda had incomparable vitality and creativity – and accessibility. Her 2017 documentary Faces Places, about her work with the photographer and installation artist JR, entranced everyone and earned her an Oscar nomination. Her work was not commercial in any generally accepted sense, but her ideas were crucially lucid and available. Audiences young and old loved her. 
‘Greatest of the great’ – Agnès Varda: the eternally youthful soul of world cinema | Agnès Varda | The Guardian

While I Live, I Remember

Varda has long been called the Godmother of the French New Wave; when she made her first two films, “La Pointe Courte,” in 1955, at the age of twenty-six, and “Cleo from 5 to 7,” in 1961, both considered proto-examples of the movement, she effectively wrote the headline of her obituary. The truth is that, in more than sixty years of filmmaking, she charted a course unlike any other. Her wave was her own. Female artists of Varda’s generation, discounted or marginalized in their lifetimes, are often in the position of being “rediscovered” years later, long after they can enjoy the recognition. Varda lived long enough to see herself celebrated as the feminist lodestar she was by generations of younger women, though she was not entirely satisfied with this distinction. At an awards ceremony in 2017, in which she was presented with an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement, Varda thanked the four women who had given her a glowing introduction, before quipping, “I have a little question: Are there no men in this room who love me?” “While I Live, I Remember”: Agnès Varda’s Way of Seeing | The New Yorker

Design: Ségolène Carron
Photographer: Didier Doussan ©, cinematographer

Release date: April 2, 2024

Our Faithful Companions – Spring

Series: pets | animals

6 stamps

Designer: Bruno Ghiringhelli

Release date: April 2, 2024

The Official Stamp of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games Unveiled  

Series: sports | Olympics

1 stamp, sheets of 12
offset

La Monde has an interesting article on the history of Paris Olympiad stamps A postage stamp for Paris 2024 (lemonde.fr) 

Release date: April 5, 2024

Spring Philatelic Show Alon-de-Provence  

Series: philately 

1 stamp, cancel, sheets of 12, philatelic souvenir
intaglio

For this intaglio stamp that depicts different characteristic places in the city, the artist went to the site to take several views of Salon-de-Provence. We can find the Château de l’Empéri, the clock tower that marks the entrance to the city, and the Mussy Fountain in the shape of a mushroom. The text “Salon-de-Provence” in blue is the engraver’s own handwriting. The margins of the leaf take up the clusters of leaves of the Moussues fountain from which the water flows. Christophe Laborde-Balen dedicates the Salon-de-Provence stamp – Art of Engraved Stamps (artdutimbregrave.com)

Designer: Christophe Laborde-Balen

Release date: April 8, 2024

Treasures of Notre-Dame, the Framework

Series: Notre-Dame (3rd in series)

1 stamp on souvenir sheet
intaglio

This series was started in 2020 after the fire. It explores various architectural treasures during the reconstruction. This issue examines the framework inside the Cathedral. The first stamp in this series was Adam & Eve Stained Glass Window (2021), The Grand Organ of Notre Dame Cathedral (2022) and The Bell of Notre Dame (2023). 

Designer/engraver: Sarah Bougault using photos by Pascal Lemaître

Release date: April 15, 2024

Postman Cheval and His Ideal Palace 

Series: history | architecture

1 stamp on souvenir sheet, cancel, info sheet
intaglio

Issued on the centenary of Postman Cheval’s death. 

Cheval built his “ideal palace” over the course of 33 years, using stones he collected on his postal rounds. Sophie Beaujard dedicates the stamp Postman Horse and his ideal palace – Art du Timbre Gravé (artdutimbregrave.com) has a number of photos of Beaujard’s engraving plates. 

Ferdinand Cheval began building his unorthodox palace in 1879. It was in 1879 that he observed blocks and stones that had unique shapes due to erosion. This led him to imagine a unique building, based on intriguing stones: “I said to myself: since nature wants to do sculpture, I will do masonry and architecture,” Palais idéal du Facteur Cheval: The story of an evolving work (connaissancedesarts.com)

The postmark is taken from 3 tall sculptures on the east side of the palace. 

The Post Office wanted the portrait of the postman and his palace to appear on the stamp of the sheet. The additional space in the block made it possible to represent different characteristic elements of the palace. Thus, for example, we have the bird that dominates, made of reworked stones, vegetable elements, the two hands joined with the heart above which is inscribed on the palace with a valiant heart nothing impossible. It is in this same place that Sophie Beaujard decided to inscribe the text of the sheet “The Horse Postman 1836-1924”, imitating the original typology that the Horse Postman used on his palace.

The block also wishes to evoke the construction of the palace with the Postman Horse wearing his apron and pushing his wheelbarrow in which he gathers the stones necessary for the construction. (ibid)

The Palace previously appeared on a stamp in 1984

     
Designer/engraver Pierre Albuisson

Designer/engraver: Sophie Beaujard
Beujard has designed and engraved stamps for France, Andorra, TAAF and Monaco.

Release date: April 22, 2024

160th Anniversary of the French Red Cross

Series: history 

10 stamps, cancel
Photogravure

Designer: Boris Zaïon 
Zaïon trained at Paris-La Villette School of Architecture. After 10 years working in scenography and interior design, he moved to illustration and animation full time. His great passion is comics and how digital technology can be used in comic animation and art. 

Release date: April 29, 2024

May

Academy of Floral Games in Toulouse – 700 Years of Poetic Jousting

Series: literature 

1 stamp, cancel, sheets of 15
Photogravure

On November 2, 1323, in Toulouse, seven notables met in a garden to launch a call for poetic jousts to be held six months later, for three days. For these lovers of beautiful verse, it was a question of reconnecting with the spirit of the troubadours so present at the Court of Auditors of Toulouse and, while the tutelage of the King of France extended over the region, of affirming their attachment to the Langue d’Oc. At the beginning of May 1324, poets from the south of France and elsewhere flocked to Toulouse to compete. To celebrate the event, a piece of goldsmith’s work, a Golden Violet, was offered to the winner by the seven notables and, from 1325, by the city’s administrators: the Floral Games were born. Over the years, they have been perpetuated, under the watchful eye of the maintainers who succeeded the founders and, from the sixteenth century, under the patronage of Dame Clémence, a tutelary figure who may have been imaginary, whose bequest would have made it possible to finance the flowers. The festival also has rites. The trophies – the Violet, but also the Marigold and the Rosehip – are blessed and carried in procession, a generous banquet closes the festivities. 
TOULOUSE FLORAL GAMES – 700 YEARS OF POETRY | The ink square (lecarredencre.fr)

2024 was the 700th anniversary of the Toulouse Floral Games. And yes, they have a website Floral Games Academy | 7 centuries of poetry and letters (jeuxfloraux.fr)

Designer: Juliette Charlot  

Release date: May 6, 2024

Alice Milliat (1884 – 1957)

Series: sports | feminism

1 stamp, cancel, sheets of 15, info sheet
Photogravure

Founder of Federation of Women’s Sports Societies of France in 1917. 

Designer: Eloïse Oddos  

Release date: May 6, 2024

The Garden of Lautaret  

1 stamp, cancel, sheets of 12
Photogravure

Designer: Lil Sire  
“I like to have a magical approach to the world, tell stories, and take the viewer into my poetic imagination, populated by animals of all kinds where nature is queen.” 

Release date: May 6, 2024

EUROPA: Underwater Fauna

Series: Europa | Fauna

1 stamp, cancel, sheets of 15
Photogravure

• The Franco Banfi ray ©
• Biosphoto, seabream, smooth protula, gorgonian and hermit © crab Jean Cassou 
• Biosphoto, starfish © Frédéric Nevoit 
• Biosphoto, green © crab Henri Willem
• Naturimages, corb and crenilabre © Gaël Modrak
• Naturimages, moray eel © Julien Dalle
• Naturimages, octopus © Benoit Dupuit
• Naturimages, sea © anemone Bru
• Andia.fr and © imageBROKER

Designer: Faunesque (Phil Constantinesco)

A few weeks/months ago I had the pleasure of drawing again a stamp for La Poste in the Europa series on the theme of French underwater fauna and flora. What more can you ask for?  I was immediately engulfed by the theme obviously!

Faunesque also designed France’s first NFT stamp. 

Release date: May 6, 2024

The French Baguette 

Series: Food

1 stamp, cancel
Photogravure

The French baguette was recognised by UNESCO for its Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2022. 

The baguette is the most popular kind of bread enjoyed and consumed in France throughout the year. The traditional production process entails weighing and mixing the ingredients, kneading, fermentation, dividing, relaxing, manually shaping, second fermentation, marking the dough with shallow cuts (the baker’s signature) and baking. Unlike other loaves, the baguette is made with only four ingredients (flour, water, salt and leaven and/or yeast) from which each baker obtains a unique product. Baguettes require specific knowledge and techniques: they are baked throughout the day in small batches and the outcomes vary according to the temperature and humidity.  Artisanal know-how and culture of baguette bread – intangible heritage – Culture Sector – UNESCO

Stéphane Humbert-Basset will host a signing session from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.  at 
 The Ink Square
13 Bis r Mathurins, 75009 Paris
Day of issue

Designer: Stéphane Humbert-Basset  

Release date: May 17, 2024

Raoul Dufy (1877-1953)

12 stamps in booklet form, cancel
Photogravure

The watercolour flowers are from Dufy’s illustrations of Colette’s book, Pour un herbier.

In order to illustrate Colette’s book, Pour un herbier, Dufy created twelve watercolours of flowers in the early 1950s. It represents noble essences, such as roses, lilies or arum, as well as meadow flowers gathered in bouquets. “A bouquet is a bit like fireworks,” says Dufy. The flowers treated in close-up stand out against the white paper, as if he wanted to make a portrait of them. He does not offer a precise description in the manner of botanical albums: he rather seeks to capture their singularity. The technique is very free and is characterized by a dissociation between form and color, which has become independent. RAOUL DUFY | The ink square (lecarredencre.fr)

“What would have become of my little botanical essay, deprived of Dufy? “
Collette

French painter Dufy was part of Fauvism, an early 20th century modernist movement.  You can read more about Fauvism here Fauvism Movement Overview | TheArtStory. It’s a brief overview and easy to understand. 

Designer: Patte & Besset  
Sylvie and Tanguy Besset form the design team Patte & Besset. 

Release date: May 21, 2024

PARIS-PHILEX 2024

Offset

This year’s Paris-Philex runs from May 30 to June 1, 2024. 

Hall 5.01 Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, Paris 15th arr.
Free admission (from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. – Until 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 1.
Sunday, June 2 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.: access only to the collections of the France Philatelic Championship).

This year will feature a virtual tour of the printing house Timbres de France. As well artists and the Philaposte design team will be there. Guest country is Armenia.  

Release date: May 21, 2024

June

Théodore Géricault (1791-1824) – The Raft of the Medusa

Series: naval | art | history

1 stamp, sheets of 9, cancel
offset

An article is coming this summer about both the painting and the actual events of the Medusa and its survivors. 

Artist: Théodore Géricault 
Designer: Pierre Albuisson  
Postmark designer: Aurélie Bara  
Bara began her graphic design career in 1994. Since then, she has created stamps and post marks for New Caledonia, T.A.A.F., and La Poste. She was behind the first Valentine’s Day stamp for France in 2000.  Her website Home | Aurélie Baras – France | Visual art in Paris (aureliebaras.com) is a riot of bold, beautiful patterns and colours. 

Release date: June 3, 2024

At the Meeting … Fox

Series: fauna | collector’s series

4 stamps on a sheet.
Offset

This sheet will be first be available during the preview from Thursday 30 May to Saturday June 1, from 10 am to 6 pm (Except June  1 until 5 p.m.) at the PARIS-PHILEX 2024. 

It will be available at Carré d’Encre, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., 13 bis rue des Mathurins, 75009 PARIS.

Photographer: Michel Chardin  
Designer: Agence Huit jour

Release date: June 3, 2024

E-SPORTS

Series: gaming

1 stamp on souvenir sheet, cancel
Photogravure

This sheet will be first be available during the preview from Thursday 30 May to Saturday June 1, from 10 am to 6 pm (Except June 1 until 5 p.m.) at the PARIS-PHILEX 2024. 

Bruno GHIRINGHELLI will hold a signing session on Friday, May 31 from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Designer: Bruno Ghiringhelli  

Release date: June 3, 2024

Charles Aznavour (1924 – 2018)

1 stamp, cancel, souvenir folder
Photogravure

French singer of Armenian descent. 

The singer, songwriter and actor Charles Aznavour, who has died aged 94, was one of France’s best-loved entertainers and its most potent show-business export since Maurice Chevalier. Edith Piaf was one of those who encouraged his early career, and in many ways Aznavour could be seen as the male Piaf; his slight frame disguised a similarly huge talent. He was as important a composer and songwriter as he was a singer – and he could be a great actor even without singing a note on screen. Charles Aznavour obituary | France | The Guardian

Map: Ségolène Carron layout  
Photographer: Roger Kasparian photo ©, – leaflet: creation
Designer: Hom Nguyen and Ségolène Carron  

Release date: June 3, 2024

The Magic of Robert-Houdin

8 stamps in booklet form
Photogravure

The father of modern magic

Stéphane Humbert-Basset will be at Philaposte for a signing session on Thursday, May 30 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Location: Hall 5.1, Paris expo, Porte de Versailles, PARIS 15th.

Designer: Stéphane Humbert-Basset

Release date: June 3, 2024

Palais Brongniart – Paris 97th Congress of the Federation of Philatelic Associations

1 stamp, cancel, sheet of 10
intaglio

Palais Brongniart

Designer/engraver: Sophie Beaujard
Postmark designer: Valérie Besser  

Release date: June 3, 2024

80 Years Since the Normandy Landings, The Road to Freedom

1 stamp on souvenir sheet
Photogravure

The Liberation Mission | Ministry of the Armed Forces (defense.gouv.fr)

Designer: Louis Genty

Release date: June 10, 2024

La Roche-Guyon Val d’Oise

1 stamp, cancel, sheets of 12
Offset

Château de La Roche-Guyon – History and Creation (chateaudelarocheguyon.fr)

Designer Geneviève Marot  

Release date: June 10, 2024

Pokemon Notebook  

12 stamps in booklet form, cancel
Offset

Designer Théry will be hosting a signing session on Saturday June 1, 2024 from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm and from 2 pm to 4:30 pm.
Location: Hall 5.1, Paris expo, Porte de Versailles, PARIS 15th

Designer: Étienne Théry

Release date: June 17, 2024

50 Years Since Lucy’s Discovery  

1 stamp, cancel
Photogravure

Lucy was a hominin who lived 3.18 million years ago.

Lucy was found by Donald Johanson and Tom Gray on November 24, 1974, at the site of Hadar in Ethiopia. They had taken a Land Rover out that day to map in another locality. After a long, hot morning of mapping and surveying for fossils, they decided to head back to the vehicle. Johanson suggested taking an alternate route back to the Land Rover, through a nearby gully. Within moments, he spotted a right proximal ulna (forearm bone) and quickly identified it as a hominid. Shortly thereafter, he saw an occipital (skull) bone, then a femur, some ribs, a pelvis, and the lower jaw. Two weeks later, after many hours of excavation, screening, and sorting, several hundred fragments of bone had been recovered, representing 40 percent of a single hominid skeleton. Lucy’s Story | Institute of Human Origins (asu.edu)

Designer: Ségolène Carron

My approach is enriched by a work of self-production ranging from typography to illustration, including linocut or ceramics. So many techniques that I like to experiment with and deepen according to my desires. Ségolène Carron – à propos (segolenecarron.fr)

Release date: June 24, 2024

July 

The Beast of Gévaudan  

1 stamp, cancel (this might be the best cancel of the year), sheets of 15
intaglio

This stamp will be a featured article in July 2024 here on Bitter Grounds.

Designer: Christophe Laborde-Balen

Release date: July 1, 2024

Pétanque – Sports of the Mediterranean  

1 stamp, sheets of 15
offset

Pétanque was a leisure activity for a long time before becoming a sport in its own right for those who practice it in competition. France, creator of pétanque, is also the world’s leading nation both in terms of the number of its followers and the world championship titles won by French teams. Since 1988, France has won 21 gold medals in the men’s world championships in 28 editions.
Stamp – Euromed – Petanque – Mediterranean Sports – International Letter – La Poste

Designer: DOZ

Release date: July 8, 2024 

Canadair of the Civil Security

1 stamp, sheets of 15
photogravure

The French have a number of Canadian made Canadair CL-415 in service. This purpose built waterbomber is used by fire services in  Canada, Greece, France, Indonesian, Malaysia, USA  and Italy to name a few countries. It can swoop down onto a body of water and scoop up  6,137 L of water in 12 seconds, making it invaluable in fighting forest fires.  

Since its arrival in the Civil Security fleet, the Canadair has quickly become indispensable in firefighting, in addition to the action of firefighters and rescuers in the field. To deal with the flames, other air assets have since joined it: the Tracker, in the early 1980s, the Beechcraft in the 1990s, for coordination and reconnaissance operations, and the Dash in 2004, a water or retardant bombing aircraft. Dragon helicopters are also valuable allies in guiding the action of bomber planes and facilitating air-ground coordination.

France currently has 12 Canadairs, positioned at the Nîmes-Garons Civil Security base in the Gard region. They can be mobilised throughout the country, in the form of seasonal secondments or depending on the operational situation. As part of international solidarity, these aircraft can also operate outside our borders.

Impressive in its size, colours and power, the Canadair is also impressive for the prowess and technicality of the 40 pilots who are capable of scooping 6 tonnes of water, over 800 metres, in 12 seconds and at 120 km/h. In one hour, a Canadair can carry out 6 drops. On average, a Canadair flies 270 hours per year, including 140 hours in firefighting, and carries out 950 drops.
THE CANADAIR OF CIVIL SECURITY | The ink square (lecarredencre.fr)

The CL-415 has appeared on nearly a dozen stamps around the world, including the 1979 Canadian stamp by Jacques Charette and R. W. Bradford.

Designer: Mathieu Persan using a photograph by MI/DICOM/J.GROISARD

Release date: July 8, 2024

France Land of Tourism – Les Fontaines

12 stamps in booklet format
photogravure

Designer: Etienne Théry

Cancel and logo: Christelle Guénot

Release date: July 8, 2024

Robert Tatin Museum

Photogravure

Home – Robert Tatin (lamayenne.fr)

Robert Tatin  (1902-1983)

It’s a bit difficult to describe Tatin’s legacy in a paragraph or two. Best to go directly to the museum to learn more The Artist – Robert Tatin (lamayenne.fr) and this page to enjoy the incredible museum he created The museum – Robert Tatin (lamayenne.fr). 

Designer: Aurélie Baras using a photograph by © Dominique VERNIER

Release date: July 12, 2024

Favourite village of the French 2024 – Esquelbecq Nord

1 stamp, cancel, sheets of 14
intaglio

Each year a village is picked as the best in France. This year the peaceful Esquelbecq in French Flanders was picked. Esquelbecq: Be inspired by Flemish style | Official website Hauts-de-France Tourisme (tourisme-en-hautsdefrance.com)

Designer: Stéphane Levallois
Engraver: Pierre Bara
Based on photos taken by © by the Mayor of Esquelbec

Release date: July 15, 2024

Landes Forest

1 stamp, cancel, sheets of 15
intaglio

The Landes Forest now covers 13,000 square kilometres of land in Nouvelle-Aquitaine. This vital part of Europe’s ecosystem is an “artificial forest” that now includes large stretches of maritime pines and is home for a wide array of wildlife and plants 

Designer: Ségolène Derudder
Engraver: Line Filhon

Release date: July 15, 2024