[Janet MacD]

If you are trying to trace postal history on covers from France or areas ruled by France sent between 1793 and 1805, the dates may not make sense. Instead of the Gregorian calendar, France created a new calendar that was stripped of religious references. 

You can read about it under the Wikipedia heading “French Republican calendar”. The following link will take you to a nifty site with a conversion tool:

https://www.napoleon-empire.org/en/repub...lendar.php

If you were born in early April, like me, you are a child of Germinal, a name that evokes sap.

This was an idea that didn’t last …