Thank you, Sébastien, for the link to that great website of French stamps. As you can see when you click on the link, on show are the stamps designed and/or engraved by Yves Beaujard, designer of the latest Marianne stamp. I had a look in my French collection and found that I have only of his stamps, Liberty lighting up the world.
What I like about this stamp (and his Peace stamp which I showed yesterday) is the use of blank space in the design. A very uncluttered feel to the design. But she does look a bit stern, doesn't she? Maybe the thing is with Beaujard that he's not very good with women. For have a look at this stamp of Pierre Bayle, the French philosopher and writer:
Isn't it an absolute dream, this stamp?! Again we see the use of space and look at the soft features of the man. Absolutely my favourite of his, and I'm very sorry I haven't got it in my collection.:-)
Adrian
It has the new Marianne on, which, I must admit, I don't like at all.
I didn't really like the previous one either, and long for something a bit more original, like this one.
But the other stamps included on the cover are really nice, I think. They all represent values that are important to Europe, as the stamps are issued because France takes on the Presidency of the EU in July. The stamps show that the designer of the Marianne stamp, Mr Beaujard, is able to come up with very elegant designs, like this Peace stamp
and this Environment stamp.
Why then did he do such a horrible job on the Marianne stamp?
How could he!
taketh note of these, thy French stamps,
and trieth to emulate, for methinks these of wond'rous beauty!
Adrian
Hugh Capet may have been a nobleman, but he did not descend from a royal family. The ruling dynasty of the day, the Carolingian dynasty, however, had run its course, and a new era began under the Capetian dynasty. At the time, much was made of this election: the throne should not be acquired by hereditary right: a king should be chosen not because of his nobility of birth but because of the goodness of his soul.
I won a number of French stamps at a raffle the other day, and they turned out to be all part of a number of sets called the History of France, issued from 1966 onwards. Their proper name, by the way, is "Grands noms de l'Histoire". Sounds better, doesn't it?!
So they've now become my latest object of study. I'm trying to get all the sets together (there are eight sets in total) and will then piece together the history of France!
:-)
This definitive was in use from 1967 onwards. It was a very small set, with only three values, but there are some colour and printing type changes etc. However, the set was soon replaced by the Marianne de Béquet set in 1971. That's not one of the best designs, I don't think, although you could say it's nice in all its simplicity, but I'm glad we'll have to wait at least until 2011 to have this design revamped!
Which set me off thinking about blocks of stamps, part sheets, etc. I quite like them and when you're mainly focussed on stamps (rather than covers), they can lighten up your collection/page/display no end. The good thing is that in that way, you can show more information about the stamps. These date blocks are obvious examples as they show you when the actual stamp was printed. Now does that mean that we have to go for every date block we can find? I once tried that with my Machins but there are so many that that is just not a financially sound prospect. I suppose one way to collect them is to get first and last printing date of a stamp and all the date blocks that have any significance on the stamp. Again on Machins (I've done those the most you see), you could eg try and get the first date block when fluor was changed from yellow to blue. In that way, the date blocks included in your collection basically tell the story of that stamp. Great!
Again, it tells you from what cylinder a specific stamp is printed. And again, you don't always have to go for all the blocks that exist. This D1 dot block tells you that there's also a "no dot block" and that therefore a double pane cylinder was used. A new cylinder/plate number does not always constitute a change (that is to say, if you don't over-specialize) but new changes (like the deeper engraved Machin head on the current stamps) do usually constitute a plate/cylinder number change. I must admit though, that after finding out that with the Dutch Beatrix plate numbers, different plates keep the same number, the point of collecting these has somewhat paled.
It doesn't tell you much, only that there are counting numbers on the side (although it is nice if you have an example from the other side of the sheet too, so you can illustrate that they run from 1 to 10 or 20 on the left and from 20 or 10 to 1 on the other! Perforation types are usually nicely illustrated on blocks too.
But that's basically just trying to impress! If you really want to do this properly, you have to have a positional block, that is to say, you can see where on the sheet the variety is. But with the marginal side imperf, I think it is pretty clear where this bit was situated on the sheet!
It's part of a tourism/views theme that has been going on for ages now. Flick through your French stamp album and you feel you know a little bit what France looks like. Beautiful! And the majority recess-printed an' all !
And we got this...
And we got this...
And this...
I rest my case (with heavy heart, mind!)
I had a quick browse on the net and found that similar items exist. Look here: 
The card was produced for the first exhibition of cancelled stamps (if my French doesn't desert me) in Libourne, France from 10-12 November 1945. The 4f which is cancelled on the first day of the exhibition was issued on 15 February of that year. The 10f, however, was only issued on 15 March 1946. The stamp has been given a completely different cancel, from a Paris stamp exhibition "Salon de Philatelie". I can hardly read the date, but think it could be 6 April 1946.
First of all, the new version is printed on much whiter paper but the image itself is so much clearer than the old 70c shown below. 
You will notice, too, that the name in the bottom has changed from ITVF into Phil@poste, but that is just a change of brand name, I believe. 
I've had a closer look at the definitives I already have and found new type printings with the old ITVF name as well, so that's not it. I suppose either a new die has been made or the printing method has changed. Mmhhh, who knows more?!
It is a stamp which is not often included in Marianne de Gandon lists, probably because it has no direct link to the definitive set. It is a commemorative stamp marking the French heritage year 1980. But be that as it may, it still has an image of the definitive set as large part of the design! And you may be fooled when only glancing over it, but when you mirror the image there's no mistaking!
It is absolutely a copy of the Marianne set!
So that made my day!
Apparantly, Pierre Gandon's star was shining less brilliantly after having co-operated with the Vichy Government in France during World War II. However, because of his artistic merits, he was still asked to submit designs for a new definitive set. He let his wife pose for a photograph and based his Marianne design on that photograph. 
A stamp he made earlier seems to be a trial version of the Marianne head he later designed for the definitives. Great stuff!
What a beautiful stamp! So stylish, so true to the greatness of the artist! Very well done! Compare this to the rubbish the Dutch dare to produce.
But, to be fair, I don't think paintings on stamps is a very succesful design concept. It hardly ever works to do justice to a painting on the tiny format of postage stamp. I suppose one reason why the French stamp works so well, is that they did not use a painting but one of Rembrandt's engravings. This, combined with the fact that it is an engraved stamp, makes for a very succesful production, I think.
This is a stamp from a set issued in 1956, to celebrate the 350th birth anniversary of rembrandt. The set of five stamps consists of details of Rembrandt's engravings, and again this works so much better!
As you can see, the design has been stretched slightly to fit the new format stamp. 
Compare this with an old version of the 1940s.
Another funny thing is the info on the cancellation. It mentions the 60th anniversary of the Marianne stamps, has a date of 8-11-2006, but the Marianne de Gandon stamps were issued from 1945 onwards!
Very strange! But there may well be a logical reason for it, even though I don't see it. Answers on a postcard! (e-mail would be fine too).
The article doesn't explore the links between the two sowers further but goes on to discuss the designer of that logo who also designed stamps.
:-)
The reserve boasts the second largest breeding colony of gannets in Europe (we were there in May so we could indeed see the rocks crowded with all those gannets, a wonderful sight!), though on this French stamp puffins are shown, for which the reserve is known as well. I love puffins too, with their tragic/comic clown heads.
Bass Rock off the coast of North Berwick. Also depicted on a stamp, although I believe there were quite some mutterings at the time of issue because the image may be of a breeding colony of gannets, but I believe it was discovered that the actual photograph was not taken on Bass Rock!
And that concludes my finds in Paris! Time to go back there and find some more!