Jacques Chaban-Delmas Bridge, Bordeaux

The French Post issued a postage stamp featuring Jacques Chaban-Delmas Vertical-lift Bridge. It is EUROPE’S largest lift bridge,  opened in Bordeaux on 17 March 2013, with the Pont Jacques Chaban-Delmas spanning the River Garonne.The central lift span is 117m long and can be lifted vertically up to 53m to let tall ships pass underneath. One of the first ships to pass under it was the historic three-masted schooner Belem.

President Hollande inaugurated the €160 million bridge, which connects the Bastide district near the city’s wharves with Bacalan. He named it after the late Jacques Chaban-Delmas, who was mayor of Bordeaux for 48 years.

The bridge is 575m long with the central lift span weighing around 2,600 tonnes. Its width varies from 32 to 45m and it will be used by cars, trams, cyclists and pedestrians. It can handle 43,000 vehicles a day and will reduce traffic congestion in Bordeaux.

The construction of the project lasted three and a half years and employed about 900 people, the construction needed 43,000 m3 of concrete and 6,500 tons of structural steel.

The Jacques Chaban-Delmas vertical-lift bridge, creation of architect Thomas Lavigne, is one of the largest in Europe, with a length of 433 m and a height of 77 m. It can lift its central span with a pulley system in just 11 minutes.

Jacques Chaban-Delmas was a major figure of the Resistance, Mayor of Bordeaux, Prime Minister of Georges Pompidou and former President of the National Assembly. He died in 2000 at the age of 85.

Club News

 

 RPSL representative for India

 

Royal Philatelic Society London has appointed Mr Markand Dave of Nadiad as RPSL Representative for India. Those who wish to take membership of RPSL may  contact him at email :  MARKAND7@YAHOO.COM or visit WWW.RPSL.ORG.UK  for more details.

Stamp exhibitions

Chandigarh

 

Solan : SOLPEX 2013

District level stamp exhibition SOLPEX 2013 concluded today in Solan, Himachal Pradesh . . It was organized in B.L.Central Public School.  Around 24 frames were exhibited. Mr Satya Pal Thakur won first prize in the Senior Category whereas Bhumika Sharma was awarded first prize in Youth Group.

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My recent covers..

 

David JASTRZEBSKI, DIJON, FRANCE (cover posted from Switzerland)

Hi !

I received some covers from my readers . Thanks to all of you . I received two letters from students Gaurav and Amit.  They want to know more about the hobby of stamp collecting . please visit my newsletter, Rainbow Stamp News  blog :   http://rainbowstampnews.blogspot.in/  . You will get more info about philately and how to participate in stamp exhibitions. Visit Rainbow Stamp Club Blog for updates about new stamps. I also received two special covers of RUSHIPEX 2013 from Mr KV Rao of Berhampur, Orissa. Many thanks to you all for the covers.

N. Vignesh – Chennai

Amit Chaudhary – Bikaner

Gaurav Snehil, Trippur District ( Tamil Nadu)

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New ‘ Love ’ stamps..

 

Sweet Valentine's Day stamps from Finland

The whale swimming in the liquorice sea, the chameleon disguised as a marshmallow, an elephant picking up chocolate almonds for her baby and ice bears are having fun on the soft-ice-cream – colourful and funny stamps for the Valentine’s Day greetings from the Finnish post – something for everyone, who loves sweets and candies!

Hermes - Wholeheartedly stamps from France

The French Post has issued a block of stamps dedicated to the Saint Valentine day and featuring the "Wholeheartedly" design by Hermes.

Since 1937 the silk square 90x90 by Hermes is a symbol of creativity, refinement and know-how. Beyond seasons and collections, the Hermes square has always kept the style and quality requirements that made it famous. It owes its timeless character to many artists and illustrators. The designer Zoe Pauwels collaborates with Hermes since 1984. She drew several squares, including the "Wholeheartedly" design illustrated on this stamp.

It is covered with a multitude of small hearts, circling birds, shooting stars prolonged with long floating ribbons that fit inside a big heart. Two swans embody tenderness, love and fidelity. The whole square vibrates with flowers and light sounds by a secretly hidden lyre. This delicate instrument, invented by the god Hermes, is one of the poet Orpheus. This stamp issue has a philatelic singularity: this is the first time when stamps inserted in the block have five different visuals.

Source  : International Stamp News

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New stamps from USA..

 

Date of Issue : 30 November 2012

The US Postal Service will issue a souvenir sheet on 30th November 2012  to commemorate Centennial of the birth of Lady Bird Johnson (1912-2007) and celebrates her commitment to projects to preserve and enhance  Natural Heritage of America.

The Lady Bird Johnson souvenir sheet features six stamps, a quote from the First Lady reflecting her belief that the environment is our common ground, and a black-and-white image of the First Lady taken from a family photograph shot in 1963 by Yoichi Okamoto. Text on the back of the stamp sheet highlights a few of Lady Bird Johnson’s many successes. The single stamp on the right side of the sheet features her official White House portrait, an oil painting by Elizabeth Shoumatoff showing the seated First Lady wearing an empire-waist gown of buttercup yellow.

The five stamps on the left, adaptations of stamps originally issued in the 1960s commemorate the visible legacy left by her projects — and to encourage others to follow.

The top stamp reads “Plant for more Beautiful Streets” and shows a row of blooming crab apple trees along a paved suburban road.

The second from the top offers the encouragement to “Plant for more Beautiful Parks,” with an image of a field of daffodils along the Potomac River with the Washington Monument in the background.

“Plant for a more Beautiful America,” the center stamp, depicts the Jefferson Memorial in the background seen through branches of flowering cherry blossoms.

The fourth stamp is a scene of yellow and blue wildflowers along a highway with the caption “Plant for more Beautiful Highways.”

The last stamp, which reads “Plant for more Beautiful Cities,” shows plantings of pink and red azaleas and white tulips with the U.S. Capitol in the distance.

The original engraved stamps featuring art by Walter D. Richards (four stamps, issued in 1969) and Gyo Fujikawa (center stamp, issued in 1966) have been adapted for printing in offset lithography by artist Paloma Alcalá of Alexandria, VA.

 

 

 

Happy New Year 2013 stamps from France

The French Post has issued a set of colorful and joyous self-adhesive stamps containing New Year 2013 greetings. These stamps will become a good addition to the Christmas and New Year's cards sent on holiday eve.

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World Championship of Karate …

 

La Poste de France issued a souvenir sheet of three stamps on the occasion of the World Championship of karate, which will be held from 21 to 25 of November 2012 in Paris, Bercy.

The souvenir sheet was made in Manga style. The left stamp depicts a young girl making a Mawashi Geri, the right stamp features a young boy making a Yoko Tobi Geri and the central stamp takes a visual of a stylized Eiffel Tower, symbol of Paris.

 

Stamps on ‘ WORLD HERITAGE ’

The Limes: Frontiers of Roman Empire in Germany

 

Germany issued a Souvenir Sheet in 2007 to commemorate the Limes under its series of World Cultural Heritage. The 550 km track of the Roman Frontier in Germany from Danube River to the North West Germany is depicted in the map in this Souvenir Sheet. The stamp area depicts one of the fortified gates of the Limes.

The Latin noun ‘limes’ had a number of different meanings: a path or balk delimiting fields, a boundary line or marker, any road or path, any channel, such as a stream channel, or any distinction or difference. But the word ‘limes’ was utilized by Latin writers to denote a marked or fortified frontier

The ‘Roman Limes’ represents the border line of the Roman Empire at its greatest extent in the 2nd century AD. It stretched over 5,000 km from the Atlantic coast of northern Britain, through Europe to the Black Sea, and from there to the Red Sea and across North Africa to the Atlantic coast. The remains of the Limes today consist of vestiges of built walls, ditches, forts, fortresses, watchtowers and civilian settlements. Certain elements of the line have been excavated, some reconstructed and a few destroyed. The two sections of the Limes in Germany cover a length of 550 km from the north-west of the country to the Danube in the south-east.

At its height the Roman Empire extended into three continents. Its borders reflected the waxing and waning of power over more than millennia. In what is now Germany there were several military campaigns into the area north of the Alps and east of the River Rhine from 55/53 BC to 15-16 AD, but the area was not brought under direct control until around 85 AD when the oldest part of the Limes was created between the River Rhine and the high Taunus Mountains. This frontier followed the contours of the landscape. Later the courses defined were much straighter and the first forts established. Similarly in the area of the Raetian Limes the border was secured first under Emperor Claudius (41-54 AD), probably moved north across the river under the Emperor Domitian, and then under Emperor Trajan forts were established.

The early Limes barrier seems to have been a cleared stretch of forest monitored by wooden towers. Under the Emperor Hadrian (117-138 AD) the Limes was additionally secured with a palisade fence. In the 2nd century AD the Limes was in part straightened, and also strengthened with embankments or stone walls and numerous forts, and fort lets.

- Pradeep Kumar Mallik, Patna

email : mallikphila@gmail.com

 

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