A post office

The iconic poste (post office) in France is a venerable institution and one that French people can still count on. When you mail a first class letter within France, chances are it will arrive at its destination the next day. When you want to refer to something as easy and quick, you say that it moves comme une lettre à la poste (like a letter in the mail). No problem, smooth sailing.

La Poste du Grand-Pressigny. Click to special-deliverate.

The post office was also a place to make phone calls back in the day when not everyone had a phone in their home. When I was a student in Paris in 1981, I went to the post office to make phone calls in one of the private cabines (phone booths), often having to stand in line until one was available. That service has dwindled now that most people have cell phones. But another service has grown: la banque postale. Yes, the post office is also a full service bank with its own ATMs.

The color brand of the la poste is bright yellow, as you can see on the signs above. Letter boxes are yellow. Mail carriers drive yellow cars and vans, and in some places they ride mopeds or bikes, also yellow.

Before the name changed to La Poste, the post office was called the P.T.T., Postes, Télégraphes, et Téléphones. In those days the post office was also the phone company; that changed in 1988 when France Télécom (now called Orange) was created to manage telephone (and now internet) service. On most poste buildings around France you can still see the ghosts of the old signs. In the photo above you can just barely make out the old words on the white band above the newer gray strip where it says "La Poste."