French National Stamp Days - 9-10 March 2019

Canada Post should be doing things like that as well. They don't even celebrate "Stamp Day"! I wish they'd be more active in promoting the hobby.

I suppose they think it is now a waste. When I started collecting, an entire year's cost is now one or two issues. It's no wonder kids aren't getting into stamps when it costs that much.

Kudo's for France doing this. Hopefully you two will be able to make it to an event or two! Have fun, Beryllium Guy & hrdoktorx!

Formerly 'Journee du Timbre', the days have been celebrated since 1944. The name changed to Fete du Timbre in 2000. Until then, monies made from the French Semi-Postal stamps went towards the French Red Cross.
Many beautiful Cinderellas have also been produced while others have used the event to advertise their own .

A great and interesting collection of both stamps and Cinderellas can be formed on the topic Journee/Fete du Timbre.

National Stamp Celebration (Fête du Timbre)
Sisteron, France

Sorry for the delay in getting this post done.  The celebration was held on both Saturday and Sunday, and Xavier (hrdoktorx ) and I were able to find our way out to the small town of Sisteron, in the northern part of the Provence region.  It is about a 90-minute drive from Aix-en-Provence, where I live.  Xavier lives much closer to that town than I do, so I took a 1-hour bus journey to Manosque, and we met there and did the rest together by car.  It was a great day in all respects, and I owe Xavier some real thanks for helping to make it possible for me to attend in the first place.  Without his help, I probably would not have ventured to Sisteron on my own, using only public transportation (I do not have a car here).

Despite the grandeur of the name of this national event, it is in reality very much a collection of local events scattered all over the country.  The exhibition and show in Sisteron, while not large in my perception, were still well attended and a very manageable size to be well covered over the course of a day.  Xavier and I arrived just before 10am, and we stayed until just after 4pm, with a lunch break in the middle.  Here are some illustrated highlights from our little adventure:


This is the center of the room with dealers' tables surrounded on three sides by the framed exhibits.  Xavier and I spent most of our money here.


A nice set of Saar issues that we admired among the framed exhibits.  There were many other nicely done displays, including one of old post boxes.


Here are some Algeria and Tunisia stamps that we got from a 10-centime per stamp stock book, and we later divided up between us.


Here is a Maxicard-style France postcard with first-day-of-issue cancellation: this made me think of Werner (salentin ) and all his bridge topicals!

There were, of course, many other acquisitions made at the show by both of us, so I think that you will all be seeing future posts in the appropriate threads for some of that material.  All in all, it was a great day, and Xavier and I are already talking about our next possible chance to do it again! 

I agree. I am attending a show here in Michigan, USA on March 23 and it is my intention to post photos here. They will have displays as well as dealer tables.

kostia84, I posted about this show here: thestampforum.boards.net/post/71134

They don't show their exhibits in advance and the only internet site they have is a Facebook page which may not be public. I will try to take lots of pictures.