La Poste (France)
Encyclopedia
Mail
Mail, or post, is a system for transporting letters and other tangible objects: written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages are delivered to destinations around the world. Anything sent through the postal system is called mail or post.In principle, a postal service...
service of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, which also operates postal services in the French Overseas Departments
Département d'outre-mer
An overseas department is a department of France that is outside metropolitan France. They have the same political status as metropolitan departments. As integral parts of France and the European Union, overseas departments are represented in the National Assembly, Senate, and Economic and Social...
of Réunion
Réunion
Réunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...
, Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe is an archipelago located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres and a population of 400,000. It is the first overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe...
, Martinique
Martinique
Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...
and French Guiana
French Guiana
French Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...
, and the territorial collectivities of Saint Pierre and Miquelon and Mayotte
Mayotte
Mayotte is an overseas department and region of France consisting of a main island, Grande-Terre , a smaller island, Petite-Terre , and several islets around these two. The archipelago is located in the northern Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean, namely between northwestern Madagascar and...
. It is headquartered in the 15th arrondissement of Paris.
La Poste postage stamps are valid for use in the Overseas Departments, but not in the Territorial Collectivities, which issue their own stamps, separate from metropolitan France
Metropolitan France
Metropolitan France is the part of France located in Europe. It can also be described as mainland France or as the French mainland and the island of Corsica...
.
It also operates the postal service in Monaco
Monaco
Monaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a sovereign city state on the French Riviera. It is bordered on three sides by its neighbour, France, and its centre is about from Italy. Its area is with a population of 35,986 as of 2011 and is the most densely populated country in the...
, while in Andorra
Andorra
Andorra , officially the Principality of Andorra , also called the Principality of the Valleys of Andorra, , is a small landlocked country in southwestern Europe, located in the eastern Pyrenees mountains and bordered by Spain and France. It is the sixth smallest nation in Europe having an area of...
, it operates postal services
Postal services in Andorra
Postal services in Andorra are unique in that they are not operated by the Principality itself, but by its two larger neighbouring countries, Spain and France. This is a legacy of the centuries of de facto control exercised by those two countries over Andorra...
alongside those of Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
.
In addition to postal services, it also offers banking services (with La Banque Postale
La Banque Postale
La Banque postale is a French bank created on 1 January, 2006 as a subsidiary of La Poste, the national postal service.- Controversy :In 2010 the French government's Autorité de la concurrence fined eleven banks, including , the sum of 384,900,000 Euros for colluding to charge unjustified fees on...
) and, via Chronopost
Chronopost
Chronopost International, a member of the La Poste group, provides express shipping and delivery service both domestically and internationally....
, courier services.
After the government, La Poste is the second largest employer in France.
It also offers webmail, providing @laposte.net email addresses and hosts approximately 1.6 million active email accounts.
La Poste owns German parcel delivery company Deutscher Paket Dienst
Deutscher Paket Dienst
DPD is a German parcel delivery company. It has more than 500 depots in more than 40 countries. The company was founded in 1977 in Aschaffenburg. In its first year of operation, over 1.4 million parcels were shipped - by 1980 this figure had risen to 7 million...
(DPD).