With the collaboration of M. Bertron
Looking through the list of PHILAPOSTEL’s annual meetings, it is easy to see the predilection of the association’s leaders for beach tourism. Of the last ten assemblies, seven have been held in locations close to the sea, five of them on the Atlantic coast. Indeed, after the 2023 assembly in Cap d’Agde, on the Mediterranean coast (see article), PHILAPOSTEL returned to the Atlantic coast for its major annual 2024 event.
The 72nd convention was held over the weekend of May 23rd to 26th 2024, as always in a Village Vacances Azureva, in this case Les Conches, in Longeville-sur-Mer (Vendée) … the same location previously chosen for the 2017 meeting (see article, published in VARIABLE 45).
As in previous years, the assembly brought together over the weekend some 120 participants, representing the 25 regional and departmental associations of PHILAPOSTEL, the largest philatelic association in France.
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The event, organised in collaboration with the Pays de la Loire regional section, included a philatelic exhibition, a mail art competition, and ‘Ma première exposition’, a new and attractive exhibition format in which participants present an original collecting theme displayed on 12 pages.
And also as in previous events, the organisers requested a special LISA vignette and two personalised stamps for the convention from Philaposte.
The LISA issue is a design by Paul Pineau, known as Polpino, who took part in the usual signing session. Polpino is a comic strip artist whose is best known for the adventures of Alban Dmerlu. The composition depicts the church of Notre-Dame and the beach of Longeville-sur-Mer, with a surfer in the foreground, and on the right, by way of a little joke by the artist, his character Alban Dmerlu at the helm of a small sailboat.
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The organisation produced a commemorative postcard designed by Jean-Paul Casimir, and a cover illustrating the detail of the LISA vignette. Both designs are also on the two personalised stamps, which were available as a ‘collector’ or presentation pack.
The special postmark is illustrated with the central image of the vignette, the surfer on the beach.
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The convention representatives and visitors were able to obtain LISA vignettes from the IER NABANCO postal kiosk installed in one of the halls of the holiday complex. This machine had been moved from the nearby Luçon post office (see receipt below). La Poste set up a temporary post office at the convention on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th.
The kiosk had been programmed with the specially modified software which prevents the printing of the 2D Datamatrix code and the La Poste logo printed on the variable value stamps issued by postal kiosks installed in post offices. The minimum programmed value was 1.00 EUR.
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(English edition rewritten by J. Gareze, June 2024)