Balloons and Pigeons – Airmail During the Siege of Paris 1870-71 presented by Larry Rosenblum, Director of the France and Colonies Philatelic Society (US) on February 23, 2021.
When the Prussians laid a siege on Paris in September 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War, the Parisians resorted to airmail for communication. Following the moderately successful use of unmanned balloons in Metz, a city in eastern France similarly besieged, the Paris post office began a series of manned balloons to take mail over the Prussians to a location where they could enter the mail stream safely. Of the 55 mail-carrying balloons, most landed in areas away from the Prussians. Some, however, had more difficult flights, including one that landed in Norway.
To get messages into Paris, they resorted to a time-tested method – pigeons. Combined with advances in microphotography and microfilm, Parisians were able to receive news from friends and loved-ones during the difficult final months of the siege.