Boulevard Brune in Paris

This cover contained the thanks from friends of mine after their marriage. It wears the "Un grand merci" stamp designed by artist Ben (Benjamin Vautier). This stamp was advertized by Phil@poste because the point on the i is a perforation...



The place of cancellation interested me more than the stamp or the hole above the i : « 75 BRUNE PPDC - 75014 ».

Reading La Poste's website, a PPDC is a place where mail is prepared and distributed. The mail to expedit is prepared for an Industrial mail platform (PIC), sort of national and international mail crossroad. The PPDC, like the PDC, distributes the mail to firms and peoples.

The PPDC of Brune benefits of the historic importance of the postal places on this boulevard des maréchaux, in Southern Paris. Since the 19th century, the French posts have possessed large places there, quite empty at the beginning : mail platform, headquarters, and the Atlier des timbres-poste where stamps of France and overseas were printed from 1895 to 1970.

Before, from 1848 till 1876, Anatole Hulot used the Hôtel des Monnaies to print the first stamps for the Ceres and Empire series. In 1876, the postal authority gave this misson to the Banque de France for the Sage series, before buying its printer of the rue de Hauteville. 1895, everything was placed at boulevard Brune.

To learn more about the first postal print plant in France (1848 to 1895), I advice you the Catalogue spécialisé by Pascal Behr, Jean-François Brun and Michèle Chauvet, at the Yvert et Tellier editions. The two latter just publish an Introduction à l'histoire postale de France de 1848-1878, whose arrival in my postbox I am impatiently waiting for.