FRANCE - REUNION

Réunion (French: La Réunion , previously Île Bourbon) is an overseas department and region of the French Republic and an island in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar and 175 km (109 mi) southwest of Mauritius. As of January 2020, it had a population of 859,959.

The island has been inhabited since the 16th century, when people from France and Madagascar settled there. Slavery was abolished on 20 December 1848 (a date celebrated yearly on the island), when the French Second Republic abolished slavery in the French colonies. However, later on indentured workers were brought to Réunion from South India, among other places. The island became an overseas department of France in 1946.

As in France, the official language is French. In addition, the majority of the region's population speaks Réunion Creole.  administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France. Like the other four overseas departments, it is also one of the 18 regions of France, with the modified status of overseas region, and an integral part of the republic with the same status as Metropolitan France. Réunion is an outermost region of the European Union and, as an overseas department of France, part of the eurozone.

Mayotte was the first Comorian island to fall under French influence at the beginning of the 1840s. It was the French administrative and postal center in the archipelago. Between 1911 and 1975, Mayotte's postal history is the same as the other Comoros: part of the Madagascar colony, then part of the Comoros Archipelago overseas territory.In July 1975, Mayotte's postal history diverged again because its inhabitants voted by referendum to remain a French territory. After a shortage of stamps, stamps of France were used from February 1976 to December 1996.  From 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2011, Mayotte was postally autonomous and issued its own stamps. Postal operations are managed by an overseas subsidiary of La Poste. From 1 January 2012, with the full integration of Mayotte with France, the island has no longer postal autonomy and uses the stamps of France exclusively.

The post in Mayotte is operated by an overseas section of La Poste.  In February 1976, stamps identical to those used in Metropolitan France arrived. Like in the Réunion in January 1975, the French franc replaced the CFA franc through the Institut d'émission d'Outre-Mer, the CFP franc issuing bank.

Only the date stamp distinguished a stamp used in Mayotte.

On 2 January 1997, the island obtained a philatelic autonomy: local institutions can choose the stamps' topics: coat of arms, artworks, traditions, fauna and flora are omnipresent. They continue to be printed by the French postal printer, Philaposte Boulazac, formerly Imprimerie des timbres-poste et valeurs fiduciaires (ITVF), whose name appears at the bottom of the stamps. Stamps of France were no longer accepted from 31 March 1997, but the Marianne definitive series is overprinted "Mayotte". In 2001, a second definitive series completed Marianne: a black and white map of the island. Another proximity with Metropolitan stamps was the double denomination in franc and euro between July 1999 and December 2001.

The last stamp of Mayotte was a joint emission with the TAAF. From 2 January 2012, the stamps of France became valid in Mayotte, and from 1 April 2012 were the only ones on sale on Mayotte's post offices. The stamps of Mayotte remain valid without time limitation.