From one end of the country to the other. After the 2018 convention in Lacanau, on the southern Atlantic coast (see article, also published in VARIABLE 49), the 2019 PHILAPOSTEL annual meeting moved to Bussang, in the Vosges region, northeast of the country, close to the German border.

Indeed, PHILAPOSTEL had already selected this location for its conventions in 1991, 1996 and 2013, with the release of a special LISA design in 2013 (right image and article, also in VARIABLE 29).

The 67th general assembly was organized by PHILAPOSTEL Haut-Rhin and was held from May 16th to 19th 2019 at the Azureva village-vacances, in Bussang. As in previous years, the convention brought together more than a hundred representatives from the 26 regional and departmental associations of PHILAPOSTEL, the largest philatelic association in France.
In addition to the convention, the holiday resort hosted a talk and a regional philatelic exhibition over the weekend which included a mail art competition and the usual 'Coups de coeur' exhibition, in which participants displayed a special or personal favourite postal or philatelic item.

Again in 2019, PHILAPOSTEL requested Phil@Poste to produce a commemorative LISA vignette. It is the tenth special design for this association with the first, released by La Poste in 2009 on the occasion of the 57th convention held in Raedersheim (see article and VARIABLE 13).

The new design is a beautiful composition by Sophie Beaujard which, like the 2013 release, includes a 'reference' to Bussang's best-known building the Théatre du Peuple, in this case the access porch. On the right, we find the image of a rock climber, with the Bussang Valley in the background.

In recent years, Phil@Poste has been reducing the quantity of labels with the new LISA design, and has instead refined the quantities to meet the expected demand. As an example, Phil@Poste produced 25,000 thermal self-adhesive labels with the LISA 2013 vignette and only 17,500 labels with this new design.

The following images show the initial designs proposed by the artist, prior to the final design.


French illustrator Sophie Beaujard attended the Bussang convention and was, no doubt, one of the leading supporters/players of this philatelic event. In addition to the LISA vignette, she also designed a commemorative postcard and the special postmark (images below), both dedicated to another tourist attraction of this town, outdoor activities.

		Taking different details of the LISA vignette and the postcard, the organizers produced three personalized stamps and a pictorial envelope, which they put on sale in different combinations.

For two days, on Friday 17th and Saturday 18th, La Poste set up a small temporary post office in one of the rooms of the resort. For the printing of variable value stamps, they installed two postal kiosks, one IER LISA 2 Évolution (left) and one IER Nabanco (right), both with thermal printers. These machines had been temporarily moved to Bussang from Le Thillot and Belfort post offices.


Of course, whether by design or not, the installation of two different postal kiosks meant the issue of variable value stamps with two different printing varieties. Fortunately, La Poste had temporarily modified the software to suppress the printing of the annoying 2D Datamatrix code and the La Poste logo. It was however, only possible to purchase stamps with a face value at or above 0.86 EUR, the current postage rate for economy domestic mail.

IER LISA 2 imprint	IER Nabanco imprint
Inland economic mail - CC    ECOPLI

Inland priority mail (D+2) - DD    LETTRE VERTE
Inland priority mail (D+1) - AA    LETTRE PRIORITAIRE
International priority mail - IP    LETTRE PRIORITAIRE INTERNATIONALE

Both kiosks were connected to the postal network. It was thus possible to obtain stamps in the two available versions, with their respective barcode labels for tracking mail; the 'Lettre Suivie' for 'Lettre Verte' shipments, and the 'Service de Suivi' available for other shipment categories (like the ECOPLI mail, images below) in this case with the 'Sticker Suivi' barcode label.
The bottom row shows the new barcode label, 'MARCHANDISES HORS UE', corresponding to stamps for international merchandise shipments.

Inland tracked 'Ecopli' mail - CC    ECOPLI + barcode label 'Sticker suivi'

Barcode label 'MARCHANDISES HORS UE'

Although during the convention La Poste staff maintained that stamps with the Datamatrix code would NOT be issued, part of the orders printed after the convention were produced using an IER Nabanco kiosk with the software having been restored and therefore, these stamps included the Datamatrix code and the logo printed on the right of the label.

The Théatre du Peuple was created in 1895 by Maurice Pottecher, a writer and poet born in Bussang. It was conceived as a popular theatre. It is built completely of wood and can seat up to 900 spectators. The back doors of the stage can be fully opened, allowing a view of the countryside and mountains. The theatre was classified as an historical monument in 1976, and is still operating today, offering performances during the summer months.