Par Avion / Airmail
By Inlemay
@Inlemay (17713)
South Africa
July 27, 2016 5:36am CST
The usual design is a plain blue oblong, with the phrases "AIR MAIL" and/or "PAR AVION" in white letters.
With all the recent postcard activities and snail mail happening between many mylotters and postcrossing memebers - I noticed that most cards come with the "PAR AVION" sticker attached. When I inquired at my postoffice for such stickers I was told that when I use International stamps, they already state airmail tariffs and there is not need to use the "Par Avion" air mail sticker anymore.
How sad - I hate it when something that has been here FOREVER gets taken away!!
Now since we have all remembered that the STAMP originated in the UK, why does the air mail sticker, alternatively indicate FRENCH?
Any ideas on this?
To make matters easier to understand I found this on Wikipedia - Google is a fantastic tool indeed:
"The Universal Postal Union adopted comprehensive rules for airmail at its 1929 Postal Union Congress in London. Since the official language of the Universal Postal Union is French, airmail items worldwide are often marked Par avion , literally: "by airplane"."
"An airmail etiquette, often shortened to just etiquette, is a label used to indicate that a letter is to be sent by airmail. The term is from French étiquette "label, sticker" (cognate to stick), from which also comes the English word etiquette "rules of behavior"."
Learning new things every day!
This one is from RUSSIA
12 people like this
10 responses
@miniam (9154)
• Bern, Switzerland
27 Jul 16
I sent postcards to some members here,because i wanted to,invited anyone who wanted a card to send their address.
Must admit lm disappointed,i did not expect a thank you, l never otherwise I get disappointed,but what I expect is a confirmation that it reached well.
Only 1 person remembered to confirm.Either the others gave me wrong address or the cards got lost in the post but none of the others confirmed receiving the card.
I did nt ask, it`s not my place to ask so im assuming the cards never arrived.
2 people like this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
27 Jul 16
I had no idea there was a universal postal union, or that they spoke french! lol
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
29 Jul 16
@Inlemay true, one would expect that to change, I had never paid attention to the fact it did not
1 person likes this
@sunrisefan (28524)
• Philippines
28 Jul 16
Aside from the "Par Avion" label, I remember that mail intended for air mail was also in envelopes with the red, white and blue stripes all around the edges. Ordinary mail were placed in plain white envelopes.
1 person likes this
@sunrisefan (28524)
• Philippines
28 Jul 16
@Inlemay Here in our country, I think they're not used much anymore, especially with the advent of email. Postal service here, even for airmail, is still slow. Sometimes it's because the postmen do not care to deliver mails right away. The one assigned to our place takes a lot of time to deliver his lot of the mail. Sometimes it takes almost a month to deliver the mail.
1 person likes this
@JamesHxstatic (29413)
• Eugene, Oregon
27 Jul 16
I always wondered about why the French phrase was used too.
1 person likes this
@BettyB (4117)
• Summerville, South Carolina
28 Jul 16
Fascinating. I love looking up odd bits of information and when one topic leads you off in a new direction, its even better. I've often used the word etiquette but I never really thought about its meaning. "Rules of Behavior" fits. Next time I mail a letter, I will be sure to use proper postal etiquette.
Have a great day!
1 person likes this
