I read an article today on the French-Property.com website advising that
La Poste is to end the second class international delivery of small packages on 1st July 2011...
It reads:
"It is a service that is not widely known about by La Poste customers, and the low level of usage is being used as main justification for getting rid of it.

The service, called ‘économique internationale’, is up to 40% cheaper than the first class ‘prioritaire internationale’ service.

Using this service it is possible to send a 1kg package anywhere in the EU for €5.65. The cost of the first class prioritaire service is €8.75."
Here is a link to the full article:
http://www.french-property.com/news/money_france/la_poste_cheap_international_service/

This is very worrying for people like me living in France and must necessarily affect the quantity of books I will be able to send abroad.
However, there is little anyone can do about it sadly!

Will it be squashed under the pretense that the main economy international mail rate along which it was presumably processed has been dismantled, and that it saw marginal use anyway (you bet it could be marginal, with the non-existent publicity it was given, and often having to make the personnel aware of its very existence yourself...) ?

Will it be chucked in with the priority mail ? If it's so marginal the little extra cost shouldn't be that high... I'm wondering.

http://www.laposte.fr/courrierinternational/index.php?id=173&pdt_id=#accroche60

It arrived in the UK 2 days later!