FRANCE - PARIS

Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris, named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair. The tower stands 324 metres (1,063 ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-storey building. The tower has three levels for visitors. The walk from ground level to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the walk from the first to the second level. The third and highest level is accessible only by lift—stairs do exist but are usually closed to the public. The tower has become the most prominent symbol of both Paris and France.

 

Nice stamps.

Received from: stess29

FRANCE - SEASON'S GREETINGS

Joyeux Noël

A beautiful postcard showing the Eiffel Tower, sent from the USA.

 

 

 

Beautiful stamps.

Received from: Lori

FRANCE - NATURE

La Côte d'Opale - Le Site des Caps

The French Opal Coast covers the seaside holiday area of the Pas de Calais, from Calais in the north to Berck in the south, but also extends to Le Crotoy. It is known for its beautiful cliffs such as Cape Blanc Nez and Cape Gris Nez and for its wide area of dunes. The cliffs of chalk are very similar to the white cliffs of Dover at the other side of the Channel in England. Cap Blanc Nez does not protrude into the sea like a typical cape, but is a high point where a chalk ridge has been truncated by the sea, forming a cliff that is topped by an obelisk commemorating the Dover Patrol which kept the Channel free from U-boats during World War I. The headland's name is actually a French deformation of an original English name, Black Nen, deriving from the time when Calais was under English rule, and therefore its original meaning is Cape Black Nose.

The cliffs of the Cap Gris Nez are the closest point of France to England - 34 km (21 mi) from their English counterparts at Dover. Smothered in sea pinks and thrift, the cliffs are a perfect vantage point to see hundreds of ships from oil tankers to little fishing trawlers plying the waters below. On a clear day, the emblematic white cliffs of Dover on the English shore can be seen. The cliffs of Cap Gris Nez are made of sandstone, clay and chalk. They are mainly grey which gives the cape its name.

A nice stamp. 

Received from: sunsky

La Dune du Pyla

The Great Dune of Pyla (or Pilat) is the tallest sand dune in Europe. It is located in La Teste-de-Buch in the Arcachon Bay area, France, 60 km from Bordeaux.Pilat is sometimes spelled Pyla, hence the alternative name "dune of Pyla". More accurately, Pyla is the name of the closest town, Pyla-sur-Mer, which is part of La Teste-de-Buch municipality in the Gironde department. The dune has a volume of about 60,000,000 m³, measuring around 500 m wide from east to west and 2.7 km in length from north to south. Its height is 108 metres above sea level. The dune is a famous tourist destination with more than one million visitors per year. The dune is considered a foredune, meaning a dune that runs parallel to a shoreline, behind the high tide line of a beach. The dune has been observed to move landward, slowly pushing the forest back to cover houses, roads and even portions of the Atlantic Wall.

 

A beautiful EUROPA stamp.

Received from: sunsky

Haute Chaine du Jura

With a surface area of 11,000 hectares (including nearly 8,000 ha of forest land), la the Haute Chaine du Jura Nature Reserve is among the most important in France. There are seven large areas: the cliffs, the screes, the mountain forests, the wetlands, the high grasslands, the dry grasslands and the pine forests wrapping around the Crêt de la Neige. Eighteen communes share a part of their territory with the Haute Chaine du Jura Nature Reserve: Bellegarde, Léaz, Lancrans, Collonges, Confort, Chézery-Forens, Farges, Péron, Saint-Jean-de-Gonville, Thoiry, Lélex, Sergy, Crozet, Echenevex, Mijoux, Gex, Vesancy, Divonne-les- Bains.

 

Beautiful stamps.

Received from: Elise-57

FRANCE - CITYVIEWS

Angers

Angers is the main city in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France about 300 km (190 mi) south-west of Paris. The city traces its roots to early Roman times. It occupies both banks of the Maine, which is spanned by six bridges. The district along the river has flourishing nurseries and market gardens. It is known for its fresh produce and cut flowers. In addition to the massive Château d'Angers, the city is also noted for the impressive twin spires of the twelfth-century Cathedral of Saint-Maurice. There are also many curious wooden houses of the fifteenth and 16th centuries.

 

A nice stamp.

Received from: mylou

 

 

 

 

 

Saint-Goustan

The French port of Saint-Goustan is a former fishing port and trading centre situated beside the river Auray. In modern times it has become one of the quarters of the commune of Auray in the department of Morbihan in Brittany. During the 20th century Saint-Goustan became one of the most popular tourist areas in the Auray area as a result of its picturesqueness and the timbered houses in the town centre. However, the large granite stones of the wharf are gradually disintegrating and tidal erosion has created pockets behind the retaining wall.

The same stamp as above.

Received from: edouardhavard

La Rochelle

La Rochelle is a city in western France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department. The city is connected to the Île de Ré by a 2.9 km (1.8 mi) bridge completed on 19 May 1988. Its harbour opens into a protected strait, the Pertuis d'Antioche. The city has beautifully maintained its past architecture, making it one of the most picturesque and historically rich cities on the Atlantic coast. This helped develop a strong tourism industry. La Rochelle's main feature is the "Vieux Port" ("Old Harbour"), which is at the heart of the city, picturesque and lined with seafood restaurants. The city walls are open to an evening promenade. The old town has been well preserved.

 

Nice stamps.

Received from: Elise-57

VINTAGE REPRINTS

S. S. Sindoro der R'damsche Lloijd

I can't find any information about this ship so if you know anything, let me know, please.

Wonderful vintage stamps.

Received from: Lotty

M. S. Flevomeer

A nice stamp.

Received from: Yvo

 

Landbouw in Zeeland

Zeeland is the westernmost province of the Netherlands. The province, located in the south-west of the country, consists of a number of islands (hence its name, meaning "sea-land") and a strip bordering Belgium. Its capital is Middelburg. The province of Zeeland is a large river delta situated at the mouth of several major rivers. Most of the province lies below sea level and was reclaimed from the sea by inhabitants over time. What used to be a muddy landscape, flooding at high tide and reappearing at low tide, became a series of small man-made hills that stayed dry at all times. The people of the province would later connect the hills by creating dikes, which led to a chain of dry land that later grew into bigger islands and gave the province its current shape. The shape of the islands has changed over time at the hands of both man and nature.

 

Beautiful stamps.

Received from: inet

Telephones

A payphone is a public telephone, often located in a phone booth or a privacy hood, with pre-payment by inserting money (usually coins), a credit or debit card, or a telephone card. Payphones were preceded by pay stations, manned by telephone company attendants who would collect payment for calls placed. In 1889, the first public coin telephone was invented by William Gray and installed at a bank in Hartford, Connecticut. The invention quickly caught on, and by 1902, there were 81,000 payphones in the United States. By 1905, the first outdoor payphones with booths were installed.

 

 

A nice stamp.

Received from: PetitPilote