Balloons 1983 - FR

I wanted to show you this issue, because it really says a lot about Balloon flight
history, and aviation pioneering in general. (Thanks Daniel!)
It was made in 1983 in celebration for 200 years of "l'Air et de l'Espace" - Aviation
and Space. So the French post office chose the pioneer inventions in aerial travel: balloons.

Issued 1983 - France

2,00 - this stamp honours the very first pioneers of balloon flighting by representing the
type of balloon it was used to do it, and having the two gentlemen names there, that made the
balloon, and made it all possible. In November 1983, they were the first humans
to fly one of those: Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes (Marquis d'Arlandes). They used a 'Montgolfier' type of balloon, invented by this brothers.
This one has a bonus, 2 tiny windmills on the scenery! =)


3,00 - Jacques Charles was the professor who designed the world's first hydrogen balloon,
which was different from the hot-air balloon of the Montgolfier brothers. 'Robert' were the brother engineers who built it.
M. N. Robert and Charles were the first men to fly it on December 1783. This stamp shows the type of balloon flew. They also took a barometer and thermometer with them, and those were the first meteorological measurements of the atmosphere above earth surface. On the back we can see the Tuileries Palace, which was the most crowded place that day to see the flight, so this is another bonus, as i also love palaces in stamps.