A French post group has launched a set of stamps which highlight Vietnam’s scenic spots and architectural icons as a token of friendship.

La Poste, France’s major post group, on Thursday introduced a collection of stamps at the office of the Vietnamese Embassy in Paris, newswire Vietnamplus reported on Friday.

The collection is comprised of three designs with images representing three Vietnamese regions.

The first, intended for 20-gram priority letters, features Truong Tien Bridge, which spans the Huong (Perfume) River in Hue of central Vietnam’s Thua Thien-Hue Province.

The second design, meant for 50-gram priority letters, depicts Nha Rong (Dragon House) Harbor in District 4, Ho Chi Minh City.

Meanwhile, the last one, to be stuck on outbound 20-gram letters, portrays the Hanoi Opera House, which is located in the Vietnamese capital’s Hoan Kiem District.

A total of 14,040 such stamps will be published, and the first batch of 1,000 will be affixed on letters sent to Vietnamese expats and French guests to invite them to a Tet (Lunar New Year) get-together.

The annual gathering is poised to be held by the Vietnamese Embassy in Paris on February 19.

The stamp issue is a collaboration between La Poste, the Vietnamese Embassy in France, and the Vietnam Post in commemoration of the Southeast Asian country’s 40th reunification anniversary on April 30 and 70th National Day on September 2.

Nguyen Ngoc Son, Vietnamese Ambassador to France, said at the stamp launch that the issuance both cements diplomatic ties between Vietnam and France and partly reflects the two countries’ shared history.

The mutual historical slices are manifest in the French-style architectural features which are long incorporated in century-old hallmark Vietnamese edifices.   

La Poste has worked with Vietnamese partners to launch two batches of stamps before, one accentuating Vietnam’s UNESCO-recognized Ha Long Bay in 2008 and the other portraying Swiss-French bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin in 2013.

Ha Long Bay, located in Quang Ninh Province in northern Vietnam, is one of the country’s major tourist attractions.

Yersin (1863-1943) is most remembered as the co-discoverer of the bacillus responsible for the bubonic plague in 1894.

The doctor is also credited with discovering Liang Biang Plateau, the site of Da Lat in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, in 1893; and founding the Nha Trang Pasteur Institute in 1895 in the south-central province of Khanh Hoa, among other massive contributions.

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