Postal Museum (Paris)

The permanent exhibition of the museum is presented in fifteen rooms, which have a rational arrangement in a spiral around the vertical axis. To start exploring the exhibition, visitors take the elevator to the fifth floor, and at the end of the inspection they return to the lower floor. The modern design of the stands and the successful lighting contribute to the inspection of postal equipment, clothing of postmen , models and dummies , engravings , drawings, numerous philatelic materials of the pre- historic period and exhibits telling about the history of postage stamps of France ^[1] .

The halls of the museum display the following historical periods and themes:

1. Prehistoric mail is the history of the origin of writing , the exchange of correspondence and the evolution of postal communication in the world ^[1] , beginning in the 13th century BC. e. ( China ) before the creation of the first postal services.
2. Courier horse mail - from the creation of the first French postal chain of postage until 1850.
3. Letter - the period from 1672, when the service of written communications was created, until 1760, when the delivery of letters to the house was introduced.
4. Telegraph - optical telegraph of the Chapp brothers , Morse telegraph.
5. The great reforms of 1830–90 — the postal service covers the whole of France , including the villages; unification of the cost of postal services; the appearance of a postage stamp ; mail during the 1870 war .
6. The era of technical progress (1830-1890) - ships and trains in the mail service, the use of pneumatic mail .
7. The formation of modern mail (1890-1989 years).
8. Airmail - from the first postal messages by air to integration into the European postal system.
9. Mail art is a form of art using elements of postal correspondence.
10. Postage stamp ^[1] .

The museum exposition allows you to make a complete picture of the development of the post office in France from the 15th century, when, under Louis XI , the first post office appeared in Paris. The materials of the Paris “small post” of the second half of the XVII century are shown here. The exhibition has an extensive, systematic collection of postmarking stamps of the prewar period and stamp stamps of stamps and envelopes , including city, steamboat and military stamps and postmarks of cities that changed names during the French Revolution . Along with the layout of the post office in 1900, the museum funds can be found with a later machine for receiving and franking letters and postcards for internal and external correspondence, as well as packages within France, with various ways of modern sorting correspondence, including using the postal code . The museum also exhibited mailboxes and uniforms of postmen from around the world ^[1] .

Visitors have the opportunity to learn about modern methods of printing stamps in France, such as the combined method of gravure printing with offset . Philatelists may be particularly interested in the state collection of French brands, for which special electronic machines have been developed. With their help, sheets of all stamps of France have been shown since 1849, and you can quickly get one or another stamp sheet from the storerooms of the museum. Simultaneously used automation reliably protects museum materials from mechanical damage and exposure to light. In one of the sections of the museum are placed stands promoting philately, with posters and collector's work accessories ^[1] .

In addition to the permanent exhibition, the museum in a separate room regularly organizes thematic exhibitions, conferences of philatelists and other events. The lobby has a kiosk selling current issues of postage stamps of France, Monaco , Andorra ^[1] , St. Pierre and Miquelon and the Council of Europe , and other related materials and souvenirs.

• Museum exposition
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  Post carriage of the XIX century

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  Postman near the mailbox

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  French woman postman on a bicycle

• Address : 34, bd de Vaugirard, 75015 Paris, France .

The museum is located in the 15th arrondissement of Paris , in the commercial center of the city, in one of the modern buildings on Vaugirard Boulevard ^[1] . The nearest metro stations are Line 6 , Montparnasse and Pasteur .

• Opening hours: from Monday to Saturday from 10:00 to 18:00.
• Admission: 5 euros , for visitors under 18 years old - free of charge.

The idea of ​​creating a postal museum in the capital of France and its development date back to the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. To raise funds for the organization of the museum on July 6, 1939, a postal charity stamp was issued with a reproduction of a painting by Fragonard on the subject of writing a letter ( Yt # 446) ^[2] .

The Postal Museum of France ( Musée postal de France ) was opened on June 4, 1946 and changed two locations in its history, moving to a modern building in the early 1970s ^[1] . The inauguration of the museum at its current address took place on December 18, 1973. This building, known as the House of Postal and Philately ( maison de la Poste et de la Philatélie ), is engraved on a French postage stamp ( Yt # 1782) ^[1] , which went on sale on the day the museum opened ^[3] . Subsequently, the institution was renamed the Museum of La Poste ( Musée de La Poste ), and since October 20, 2009 - in L'Adresse Musée de La Poste .

• L'Adresse Musée de La Poste (100) (Fr.) . Netvibes. - Auxiliary site of the museum. Circulation date December 12, 2010. Archived March 10, 2012.
• Paris. Museum of Mail (Unc.) . France. Paris Office Cook. The circulation date is May 5, 2010. Archived March 10, 2012.