France - Saint-Honorat, monastic island of the Lérins archipelago in Cannes

 "The monastic island of the Lérins archipelago, Saint-Honorat, is located off the coast of Cannes, in the south-east of France. Through its remains and the remarkable elements of the different stages of its history, it provides exceptional testimony to the religious and cultural tradition of an island space, from Late Antiquity to the present day.

A Christian spiritual home since the beginning of the 5th century, Île Saint-Honorat has preserved the cultural testimonies of many generations of monks who succeeded one another there. The abbey bears witness today to a triple tradition: that of Honorat, its founder, and of primitive monasticism in the West, that of the rule of Saint Benedict and of Benedictine monasticism, which profoundly marked the architecture of the buildings, and that of the Cistercian tradition since the second half of the 19th century."

Source: UNESCO WHS Tentative List

France - The Pic du Midi de Bigorre observatory, a pioneer in the high mountains

 The observatory is located at the top of the Pic du Midi de Bigorre, at an altitude of 2876 m. It is a pioneering and still active high mountain scientific site. Initially dedicated to altitude meteorology, it quickly evolved into a world-class astronomical observatory, due to the exceptional qualities of its altitude sky, now carefully protected from light pollution. The peak and its surroundings constitute one of the oldest and most important dark sky reserves in Europe. The site has seen many extensions and renewals of scientific facilities throughout its history, from the start of its construction in 1878 until today. From the beginning, its permanent scientific vocation has been accompanied by a tourist vocation controlled by the difficulty of access, by the exceptional panorama that it reveals over almost the entire Pyrenean chain, between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.

France - The Charolais-Brionnais, cultural landscape of cattle farming

As early as the 17th century, the Charolais-Brionnais, which until then had practiced agricultural pluriactivity, turned towards cattle breeding. The development of this activity, from a local breed initially versatile, selected and improved on its beefing abilities to become a breed of specialized meat (the Charolais breed), was accompanied by a bedding grass. This movement of land conversion arable strengthened in the nineteenth century in a favorable economic and social context (access to property, progress of agronomy, etc.), marked by a strong growth in meat consumption and better accessibility to urban markets through improved transportation. It ended in the second half of the 20th century, generating a landscape dominated by grass, where cultures are almost absent. Although the evolution that leads to the constitution of the proposed cultural landscape can be considered relatively short - a period of about three centuries - it is remarkably documented from the historical point of view. Archival sources can accompany a precise reading of the landscape in several places of the Good.

France - Monaco - Italy - The Mediterranean Alps

"The site, which is the subject of the application, covers an area of ​​211,577 ha. It is a transboundary site, serial, focused on the geological values ​​(criterion viii) and constituted by a perimeter at the same time terrestrial and marine belonging to 3 States: Monaco, Italy and France. The Monegasque State is concerned by a marine hold. This transboundary site is located south of the alpine chain, between the departments of the Alpes-Maritimes and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence in the south-east of France and the regions of Piedmont and Liguria in the north-west. from Italy. It is a protected area that includes protected natural areas bordering such as the Alpi Marittime / Mercantour European Park, the Alpi Liguri Park, the sites of community interest of the Province of Imperia and the Department of the Alpes-Maritimes, as well as 'a marine domain encompassing a large portion of the continental margin between Villefranche sur Mer, Monaco and Ventimiglia. The geological origins of the region date back to 400 million years ago; the site shows, in the same place and in a clear way, the formation of two mountain ranges (Variscan and Alpine) which are superimposed, towards -30 million years, the tectonic phenomenon of the opening of the Western Mediterranean. This last tectonic phenomenon leads to the transversal rupture of a still young mountain range, the Western Alps, by the opening of an ocean basin: the western Mediterranean. However, since the advent of "plate tectonics" as an explanatory model of the evolution of the history of planet Earth, geologists have shown that most mountain ranges (1) are the result of the closure of 'an old ocean and (2) erodes and disappears gradually to give way to a stable continent. In relation to this general "diagram" of the functioning of the Earth, the Mediterranean Alps constitute the most exemplary site of the tearing of a mountainous massif still under construction by the opening of an ocean which is posterior to it. The transverse tear of the largest European mountain range offers a spectacular topography and a continuous elevation of nearly 6000m from the peaks of the Argentera-Mercantour at 3300 m to the seabed of the western Mediterranean at -2500 m."

Source: UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List

France - Ecrins National Park

The Ecrins form a massive single piece (2710 km2), one of the highest in France, since it culminates at more than 4000 meters, includes some 150 peaks of more than 3000 meters, including about fifty more 3500 meters and a very important ice system of more than 11000 ha, the second of France. It enjoys a strategic location in the alpine arc, in contact between the internal and external Alps, between the Southern and Northern Alps, at a crossroads of climatic, Mediterranean and continental influences. This original position and relations with neighboring areas give it an important role in the future European ecological network (many sites are identified under Natura 2000).

France - Port-Cros National Park

The Port-Cros National Park consists of the island of Port-Cros, the islets of Bagaud, Gabinière and Rascas, and a marine perimeter 600 meters wide. Land surface: 675 ha. Marine surface: 1288 ha.

France - Vanoise National Park

The entire site proposed as cultural property, natural property and cultural landscape consists essentially of territories belonging to the central and peripheral zone of the Vanoise National Park (France) and the entire Grand Paradis National Park. (Italy). Since 1976, the Council of Europe has awarded the Vanoise National Park the European Diploma, category A as natural heritage. The contact zone between the two French and Italian National Parks is over a distance of 14 km. For the proposed site of the Vanoise National Park, the territory is divided into two zones of different legislation in terms of protection of the environment: the central zone and the peripheral zone. Grand Paradise National Park has four.

Framce - National Office for Aerospace Studies and Research, Meudon

The national office for aerospace studies and research (ONERA), which succeeded in 1940 the establishment of Aeronautic military Chalais-Meudon, occupies a field of ten hectares, on the eastern edge of the great perspective of the national domain of Meudon, near the pond of Chalais, vast hexagonal basin drawn in the XVIIe century. Many buildings built from the late nineteenth century to the present day have gradually densified the plot testifying to the importance and variety of scientific activities that are now an integral part of the history of the field. In this set, the large wind tunnel appears however as the most striking building in terms of architecture. Built by the engineer Gaston Le Marec between 1932 and 1934, according to the principle of the one developed by Gustave Eiffel, but enlarged and adapted to strong powers, it is celebrated as one of the great successes of the French engineering of between two wars. The monolithic set is made of reinforced concrete sails and its central diffuser is an example of application of self-supporting thin sail. Its gigantism associated with the modern forms reflects the flexibility and possibilities of reinforced concrete to solve the problems posed by a work of this scale. This unique achievement has hardly been modified. Externally, only a plenum was built in 1950 in front of the air collector.

France - Montagne Sainte-Victoire and Cézanne sites

Overlooking the Pays d'Aix en Provence, the Sainte-Victoire mountain is a characteristic relief of the "limestone Provence": it culminates at 1000 meters. It is first of all a very rich natural site because of its palaeontological heritage (dinosaur eggs), the diversity 'of its flora (a thousand species have been listed) and its fauna (birds). It is also a cultural site whose prehistoric and historical vestiges bear witness to the great events and the diversity of human activities of the region has known since the oldest ages. But it is above all the unique beauty of its landscapes transcended by the work of Paul Cézanne that has made Sainte-Victoire Mountain famous throughout the world. Moreover, near the mountain, in Aix-en-Provence, the main places where Paul Cézanne lived were saved. These main sites are the Château de Jas de Bouffan, its workshop in the city center, the careers of Bibemus, the Black Castle, the banks of the Arc ... The Cézanian heritage of the Pais d'Aix is ​​therefore remarkably complete, and until now, well preserved. Today these sites Cézaniens are the object of an important frequentation of tourists amateurs of art which come from the whole world. The mountain is also a place for walking, hiking and high-level sports that attracts a very large number of visitors: more than 750000 in 1995.

France - Les villes bastionnées des Pays-Bas du nord-ouest de l'Europe

This set of cities encompasses the main fortified towns in the northern border area, which covers the French regions of Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Champagne-Ardennes, Belgium and the southern regions of the Netherlands. These bastion towns are, in the heart of north-west Europe, on the shores of the North Sea and the more rugged reliefs of the Ardennes, a particular territory, with open terrain presenting no real natural obstacle that can not easily be bypassed. This vast cross-border space belongs, moreover, to these few regions in the world where the natural space is so impregnated by the age of the human presence and the importance of its activity that the original nature has long since given way to a shaped landscape. by men. From the Middle Ages, the control of the territory allows the "Low Country" to present one of the highest densities in Europe. Dominating prosperous countryside, cities flourished in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. They are characterized by their proximity and their intense relations, their economic power, their political independence and their artistic development. All this favors seclusion of an original urban culture, associating communal pride with the boldness of the bourgeois enterprise. In this geographical area, open at the crossroads of the main roads of North-West Europe, these cities have, throughout history, been zones of passage or invasion. Their wealth and opulence have attracted greed. Faced with threats against their liberties and conflicts between sovereigns, they developed warlike abilities. From the end of the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 18th century, then at the beginning of the 19th century, and during the two world wars, fierce battles constantly move the borders and impose costly efforts on cities and even localities. military and constant adaptation to changes in combat techniques. This need to defend their prerogatives, has gradually shaped the landscape of the entire territory, still marked today by the omnipresent character of the fortification. The constant fury of cities to raise their fortifications was done with the same courage and the same obstinacy deployed well before to tame an unfavorable natural environment.

France - Hangar Y

The aeronautical activities of the Chalais-Meudon site began in 1877 with this brilliant inventor, Charles Renard; the latter makes the equipment necessary for the equipment of the military balloon companies. For this purpose, Renard made ready to move from the Chalais basin, to serve as a hangar to airships, metal porticoes from galleries annexed to the "gallery of machines" of the Universal Exhibition of 1878, work attributed to Henri de Dion, engineer chief of the exhibition. This is where the airship "La France" was created, making in 1884, the first closed-circuit flight of the world, over the forest of Meudon and Villacoublay. The event had such a resonance that part of this dirigible electric balloon was exposed in the flag of Military Aeronautics during the Universal Exposition of 1889. The Y hangar which formed in the Champ-de-Mars a single vessel with gantry farm without entry present at Meudon this same central vessel but doubled with low wings. It consists of a volume of 70 meters long, 24 meters wide and about 26 meters high.

France - Set of caves with concretions of the South of France

Nineteen cavities, or group of cavities (hydrogeological systems), out of a total estimated at 50000, hold an exceptional mineralogical heritage from the aesthetic, scientific and rarity points of view. This natural heritage is particularly rich in France, some sites or types of concretions are unique in the world.

Source: UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List

Andorra - France - Spain - Material evidence of the construction of the State of the Pyrenees: the Co-Principality of Andorra (Andorra)

"Romanesque Churches of Andorra - list of monuments:
- Sant Joan de Caselles
- Sant Miquel Engolasters
- Historic Ensemble of Pal
- Historic Ensemble of Cortinada
- Historic Ensemble of Warrants
- Sant Serni of Nagol
- Bell tower and porch of Santa Eulalia Encamp
- Bell tower of Sant Julià i Sant Germà

The Romanesque churches of Andorra is a historic complex constructed between homogeneous eleventh and twelfth centuries. The Romanesque delivered over the centuries most of the elements of our material culture between the ninth and thirteenth centuries. This period represents a historical-artistic point of intense activity from a historical perspective in the territory of Andorra. This is related to the subordination of the diocese of Urgell and the County for the ninth-tenth centuries, and struggles for sovereignty over the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. In the field of Art, the excitement has resulted in an intense artistic creativity whose works are currently part of our heritage." Source: UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List

Église de Sant Joan de Caselles 

Église de Sant Romà de les Bons 

Église de Sant Martí de la Cortinada 

Église de Sant Climent de Pal 

Casa de la Vall 

Église de Santa Coloma 

Église de Sant Serni de Nagol 

Église de Sant Miquel d’Engolasters 

Zone archéologique du Roc d’Enclar 

Zone archéologique de la Roureda de la Margineda  

Château de Foix 

L’ensemble de la cathédrale de la Seu d’Urgell

Postcard 1
Sant Joan de Caselles, Andorra. The stamp used is Rugby World Cup 2011 of Andorra La Poste (French). Mailed on October 27, 2011 and arrived in Penang on November 9, 2011. Thanks to Fabienne of Spain.

Postcard 2

Postcard shows Romanesque Churches of Andorra - Santa Coloma (left), Sant Joan de Caselles (middle), Sant Miquel Engolasters (right). My first postcard of Andorra mailed using the Spainish postal system. Andorra has both French and Spainish mailing systems. Two nice matching stamps of Romanesque Churches of Andorra. Postmarked on December 1, 2010 and arrived in Penang on December 16, 2010. Thanks so much to Jean-Pierre of France. Gracias, merci.