The other day, I came across this charming old mailbox (or replica thereof) in Cannes, and it made me think of how the postal services have evolved. Much has changed since the days depicted on the mailbox: email has replaced many business and personal letters, and competition has come from companies like Federal Express, DHL, UPS, and others. To compensate, the post offices have begun to offer new services. In France, for instance, La Poste is the bank of choice for roughly 20% of the population. Some services have been reduced: lines at the post office tend to get longer, not shorter, and the delivery of mail has gotten slower and occurs less frequently than it used to in spite of the price of stamps going up. Let’s just hope that the holiday mail gets delivered on time!