#AtoZChallenge | O is for Obverse

This is the front the postcard I got!

Bientôt le retour. Meilleurs amitiés

['I will come back soon. Best wishes']

This is the obverse (the front and illustrated side) of a postcard sent sent by Phillip (the USA).

Should I add it to the lighthouses album? Because it is a reproduction of the reverse of a postcard that used to feature a lighthouse. I would have liked to see it, too!

Anyway, it is something nice and strange at the same time, to read these personal messages, somehow banal, written so many years ago. On this postcard, arrived with the one above, the original message was dated in 1911:

Versailles, le 5 - 2- 11
En ce moment je suis débordé de travail ce qui m'oblige a rester enfermé le dimanche, d'ailleurs, comme il faut mauvais temps, cela m'est égal. Je suis en bonne santé. Embrassez toute la famille de ma part; je vous embrasse de tout cœur

['Right now I am overwhelmed with work, which obliges me to stay locked up on Sunday. However, as the weather is bad, it does not matter to me. I am in good health. Embrace the whole family on my behalf; I embrace you with all my heart']

I wonder if some of the postcards I have sent will finish in a flea-market. Or maybe they had, already. How would you feel about that?

#AtoZChallenge | N is for Nature

Auroras over Ylläs
Sent by Laura (Finland)

Sent by Heleen (the Netherlands)

Armstrong Woods (Guerneville, California)
Sent by Bryon (the USA)

Rainbow Falls (Hawaii)
Sent by Bryon (the USA)

Bisons in Yellowstone National Park
Sent by Bryon (the USA)

Bonus: This one arrived with a wonderful matching stamp and postmark!

Do you prefer to receive this kind of postcards, or the urban type?

#AtoZChallenge | M is for Maps

Many ways to see the world is the slogan of this company, written on the back of this postcard sent by Bryon (the USA). Every map is a way to see the world. Also every postcard is.

The Population Map: Each country is shown proportional to its population. Each square of the grid on the map represents a million people. From the perspective of population, China is the biggest country in the world! India is not far behind. The USA is the third largest. Can you guess the number four?

Two more funny maps on postcards, sent by Laura (the UK):

How to Be British No. 2
Artwork by Martyn Ford

By Ray Holland

A more conventional map showing the island of Texel in the Netherlands, sent by Heleen:

And a bonus: an envelope made of a page of a magazine, featuring an old map of Columbus (Ohio, the USA), sent by Phillip. Ancient maps are also another way to see the world, aren't they?

Do you like maps? And... Don't you love that Moon over the city?

(In case you feel curious, you have a list of the countries by population here. Have you guessed right?)

#AtoZChallenge | L is for Little Red Riding Hood

Little Red Riding Hood is a character I love. I had not seen this version by Fiep Westendorp until Heleen (the Netherlands) sent it to me in the shape of a postcard. The same illustration appears on the selvage of this wonderful (wonderful, wonderful!) sheet of stamps issued last year. Can you spot her?

And there is another version on the following postcard, also sent by Heleen:

But, besides Little Red Riding Hood, the Fairy Tale Wood, by Molly Brett (1902-1990) includes A LOT of fairy tales characters on one single illustration:

Puss in Boots

Hansel & Grethel

Cinderella

Snow White

The Twelve Swans

The Three Piglets

The Ugly Duckling

The Red Shoes

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Petter Rabbit 

The Chinese Nightingale (Thanks, Heleen! Again)

Sleeping Beauty (Thanks, Donna!)

The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs (Thanks, Phillip!)

The Golden Bird (Thanks, Eva!)

Dick Whittington and His Cat (Thanks, Anne!)

Saint George (Thanks, Anne!)

...

Are other characters on the postcard that I have missed?

#AtoZChallenge | K is for Kites

By Dick Bruna
Postcard sent by Heleen (the Netherlands).

What a Scorcher, by Peter Adderley
Postcard sent by John (the UK)

Every theme you can think of, there are postcards illustrating it!

Flying kites is a recently discovered hobby. When was the last time that you tried something new?

#AtoZChallenge | J is for Jane Austen

Letter from December 11, 1815, Jane Austen. Postcard sent by Laura (the UK). Not the first time that Jane Austen appears in my mailbox...

Which author would you like to receive a postcard of?

#AtoZChallenge | I is for Illustrators

It had been a long time since I had added a Smurf to the album! This Schtrompfvache or Smurf cow, drawn by the French cartoonist Michel Cambon, was sent by Heleen (the Netherlands).

On the envelope, and inside, more Smurfs appeared, along with some Dick Bruna's (recently passed away) stamps.

Smurfs (on comics, not on TV) were my heroes as a child. But I did not met Miffy until adulthood. Have you discovered any children character as an adult? Which one was your favourite in your childhood?

#AtoZChallenge | H is for Harper's Birds

Among many other things, I have discovered some artists thanks to postcards. So I am grateful to FinnBadger (the USA) because he introduced me in the Charley Harper's world. Then he sent me more beautiful postcards with reproductions of Harper's birds:

Indigo Bunting

Skimmerscape

Mystery of the Missing Migrants 

What/Who have you discovered thanks to postcards or mail?

#AtoZChallenge | G is for Giant

Postcard  sent by Gian Luca (Italy), featuring the Colosseum, in the centre of the city of Rome. It is the largest amphitheatre ever built. The Colosseum could hold, it is estimated, between 50,000 and 80,000 spectators. Colossus, in Latin, means 'statue bigger than the model'. The name Colosseum has long been believed to be derived from a colossal statue of Nero nearby (the statue of Nero was named after the Colossus of Rhodes).

As someone pointed out in the comments, Gladiators and Gian would be also good titles for the post.

I like when one of those coincidences occurs in the mail world. Three weeks ago I wrote that I would fly to Italy. Then this postcard arrived, along with a (big, A5) mail art envelope from Philippe (France):

It is a watercolour (yes!) freely interpreting the Roman Villa Medici on one of the stamps. And with a pun that I didn't grasp at first: Mes dix sis (literally: 'my ten sixes') sounds exactly the same as Medici, in French.

Some days mail is just great... do you agree?

#AtoZChallenge | F is for Flags

The UK

Postcard sent by John (the UK). Illustration by Martin Wiscombe.

The Netherlands

Sent by Heleen (the Netherlands). This is the Friesland flag, and it arrived with a matched stamp on the back. By the way, the red hearts are not so, but leaves of a water lily, the symbol of the region.

I like the series of Dutch stamps that show the flags and important things (or people!) of every region. Heleen has sent me also the stamps of Zeeland and Flevoland (and maybe more, but I am not able to find them right now...). The background is made of poems, but you need a magnifying glass to read them (and some knowledge of Dutch to understand them!).

The USA

Postcard sent by Bryon (the USA). As it say on the back: "Postal flag made entirely from stamps and envelopes. The stars feature postmarks from each state in the order that they were inducted to the Union. Created by a U.S. Army Quatermaster during World War II.". This is an amazing artwork. Have a closer look!

And the latest stamps I have got with the USA flag:

I am amazed by the different stamps that the USPS issues every year with different design around the flag. Does your country issue stamps with flags? What would you like to see more on stamps?

#AtoZChallenge | E is for Eatery

Arrived from the USA, this is a postcard that came with the bill in a restaurant. The postcard doesn't explain the link between this picture and the brunches they serve. Honestly, I don't see the connection, but I like the picture nevertheless.

As a postcard sender, I also like the fact that the postcard was free. They even offered to mail it! But making them pay for overseas postage would have been too much. Besides: they are not finding a new client in me! (Well, who knows?)

I think there are less free postcards than they used to be. Maybe because people don't appreciate them any more? Do you?

#AtoZChallenge | D is for Degollado

Concerning mail, and depending the place you and your friends/family live in, there are countries more exotic than others. This is just my  second postcard from Mexico. It was sent by Bryon. 

The Degollado Theatre (Teatro Degollado) is located in the central plaza of Guadalajara. It was inaugurated on 13 September 1866 with the opera the opera Lucia di Lammermoor, performed by Angela Peralta,. It is considered one of the most beautiful theatres in Mexico.

The name of the theatre is due to to the current governor of the time, Santos Degollado. On 12 December 1855, Degollado signed the official decree to build the structure, and in March, 1856, he set the first cornerstone. Creepy note: degollado is a surname, and probably it has a different origin, but it means also 'beheaded' in Spanish. So it makes a strange name for a building...

One thing I like about the A to Z Challenge is the immense variety of themes, from LEGO to The textile traditions from India or the same murder (author's) with 26 different weapons or Elliot the Snail’s Adventures or streets of Paris, or London's or a life in six words... Are you following the A to Z Challenge in other blogs? Which theme has surprised you?