Remi’s French stamp!

I have something really fun to share with you. As of today, you can walk into any French post office and buy a stamp portraying a bust of Julius Caesar that was made from a photograph taken by my love, Remi Benali.  
There are one million of these stamps available for sale!

For any stamp collectors out there, you may not be surprised to learn that only the stamps bought on the first day of their publication are marked with a special seal, which gives them extra worth. This morning, 500 people lined up at the Musée départemental Arles Antique, which is home to the bust, in order to have the special seal.
As always, I am exceptionally proud of Remi. When we stopped by this evening to buy our stamps, he was not only congratulated but was also asked to autograph the set by many savvy collectors! To see more of his archaeological work (of which I will have news in the months to come), please click here.
And so for my sweetheart on this Valentine’s Day weekend, one of his favorite tunes:
And speaking of this very sweet holiday, I was delighted to have been asked by my friend D.A. Wolf at Daily Plate of Crazy to participate in her series on Food and Love. What I wrote, as with the piece that I wrote for my Mom, comes from the heart. 
To read “Love in the terroir” please click here.
Keep sending out the Love for everyday is Valentine’s Day!

35 comments

  3. My husband is a stamp collector. He gets all the first day stamps so I hope Remi's stamp will be arriving in the mail. This is very exciting! Congratulations Remi!

  5. AMAZING…. Huge congratulations to Remi…. and I shall be queuing up ( UUGH… the French post office… now there is a tale to tell… ) as soon as I can….
    What an honour… I am so very excited for him… probably more than him… but I think it's fabulous… 🙂 🙂
    Much love xxv

  6. Oh wow! That's AMAZING!!!! I'm beaming with pride over here! I'm going to tell everyone in Le Petit Village! I actually have to go to La Poste today and I'm going to tell the postman too! xx

  7. So wonderful. I wish I had been able to get a plate-block (isn't that what it's called?). Remi's hard work has been rewarded, something that will be around forever. This is the way I describe wonderful gifts, something that will be there forever. xx's

  8. This is wonderful…well done, Rémi! Is Remi's current professional focus to memorialize through photography la patrimonie historique de la France? I look forward to spending some time exploring his site. Fascinatedly, Leslie in Oregon

  10. Having a stamp collector in my midst…I can appreciate just how special this moment is for you and Remi. Congratulations to Remi on having his photograph selected! It is wonderful! Great selection in music…as always. xx

  11. My husband loves Miles Davis, too.

    I am proud of your Remi alongside you, dear H. These moments are 'bust'ing with meaning and value. (Agh! Can you believe I'm that corny!)

    xx

  12. Well done to you both!!! Fame ……. and fortune to you hopefully – cheers!! The stamps are beautiful!!

  13. Congratulations – you are both incredibly talented and should be justly proud. I wish I could photograph like Remi and write like you. Bisous

  15. Oh,Heather….I meant to send this to you and Remi, so that you could play it for him on Valentine's Day, but we've been stuck in a once-in-fifty-years snowstorm (which, actually, posed no problem at all in this old house with its six fireplaces).

    In any case, play this for Remi (and congratulations on the stamp; Catherine's told me of how weird it was to mail a letter and find yourself licking the back of your own, mass-produced head; she was, as you'll know, the designated model for "Marianne" for a long while there)….go to:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj0yVN8pFNw

    This may be, in fact (and, for better worse, I've an encyclopedic, grotesquely eidetic-memory for lyrics and music) My Favorite Love Song….perfect for Valentine's Day.

    I love it because I could as easily send it to Herve as I could to my 77 year-old (and quite contentedly single, for decades) Aunt Martha (actually, my father's first cousin), or ANY friend I sincerely cared for. In that regard, it's an all-purpose, if quite sincere, love-song…..which is a rare thing in a society obsessed with prioritizing some single, supposedly "perfect" romantic/sexual relationship (if any of you have ever found that?…..please let me know the online-catalogue #, so I can order Christmas presents for the fifty-or-so of my friends and relatives who'd like to have such a thing).

    the lyrics are:

    Now the parking lot is empty
    Everyone's gone someplace
    I pick you up, and in the trunk I've packed
    A cooler and a 2-day suitcase .
    'Cause there's a place we like to drive to,
    Way out in the country
    Five miles out of the city limit we're singing
    And your hand's upon my knee

    So we're okay
    We're fine
    Baby I'm here to stop your crying
    I'll chase all the ghosts from your head
    I'm stronger than the monsters beneath your bed
    I'm smarter than the tricks played on your heart
    We'll look at them together, then we'll take them apart
    Adding up the total of a love that's true?….
    Multiply life by the power of two

    You know the things that I am afraid of
    I'm not afraid to tell
    And if we ever leave a legacy
    It's that we loved each other well.
    Cause I've seen the shadows of so many people
    Trying on the treasures of youth
    But a road that fancy and fast
    Ends in a fatal crash
    And I'm glad we got off,
    To tell you the truth

    All the shiny little trinkets of temptation
    (Make new friends)
    Something new instead of something old
    (But keep the old)
    All you gotta do is scratch beneath the surface
    (But remember what is gold)
    And it's fool's gold
    (What is gold)
    Fools gold
    (What is gold)
    Fools gold.

    Now we're talking about a difficult thing
    And your eyes are getting wet.
    But I took us for better, and I took us for worse
    And don't you ever forget it.
    Now the steel bars between me and a promise
    Suddenly bend with ease
    The closer I'm bound in love to you
    The closer I am to free

    So we're okay
    We're fine
    Baby, I'm here to stop your crying
    Chase all those ghosts from your head
    I'm stronger than the monsters beneath your bed,
    Smarter than the tricks played on your heart
    Well look at them together, then we'll take them apart
    Adding up the total of a love that's true
    Multiply life by the power of two

    Best Wishes and congratulations,

    David Terry
    http://www.davidterryart.com

  17. How wonderfully exciting to have Remi's work featured on a stamp. What an honour. No wonder you are so proud of him.

  20. Congratulations Remi. That is very cool! My father was a huge collector of stamps (he is now deceased). I would love to have been able to buy one of those stamps and tell him I know through a wonderful blog, some of the story behind this new stamp.

  21. WHOA!!! That's amazing – hooray for Remi!!! David echoed La Contessa's statement: "did he get paid for that??".
    Also loved your piece for Daily Plate of Crazy – what a wonderful tribute to your sweetie. And food. : )

  22. OH, I WANT A STAMP!!!!Doesnot have to be the first day one………
    HOW EXCITING!!!!!!!
    CONGRATS>>>>>>>REMI!I hope they paid him for this!!!
    XOXOX

  25. Such excitement! Such fun! Such accomplishments by you both. Have a wonderful Valentine's weekend!

  26. I hate it when a cliché is just the right word but that's awesome!

    I'm fascinated by all the decisions that lead to this from deciding the French postal system needed a new stamp….to honor Cesar? museums in France? Arles? to design, selection of artist, Remi , and on and on.

    Will you frame it? them? a collage?

    Where will we see it, if we're so invited to do so in your blog, in your next home? I just love all of it!

    Congratulations!

  28. Congratulations Remi!

    I read the title and thought…goodness, did Heather get a tattoo of Remi for Valentine's Day!?

  29. Heather,

    What a wonderful honor for your Remi and you too. Wish I was there to purchase one – hopefully they'll still be available in the Spring when I hope to visit.

  32. That is just so exciting! My congratulations to Remi. He seems to be 'a hell of a' photographer and artist, somebody who is working meticulously! You are both right to be very proud!

    And I am so much looking forward to look at some of this with my own eyes in about two weeks time. If everything works out well!

  35. This is fantastic Heather! No wonder you are proud. Congratulations, Remi. And couldn't agree more that every day should be Valentine's Day! Sending lots of love.

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