Cruising along the Seine River

This panoramic postcard was sent by Thadee.  It showcases a bateaux-mouche (fly boat) cruising along the Seine River, the Notre Dame Cathedral, Pont de l' Archevêché (Archbishop's Bridge), and the buildings of Île de la Cité. 

This card reminded me of my sweet sojourn in Paris a few years ago. I remember biking with my friends along the port dela Tournelle, the wide space along the left side of the river, and stopping just about where the two people on the photo are sitting to marvel at the majestic Notre Dame Cathedral from a different perspective.


Because I miss Paris so much, I decided to rummage my treasure trove of my photos.  Look what I found!

A snapshot I took of the Île de la Cité!  Isn't it amazing?  This is why seeing the postcard felt like deja vu! Oh how I long to come back and explore every nook and cranny of the City of Lights! I could walk for hours and hours (or days)! I could just stare in awe at the marvelous architectural structures for hours. 

These stamps came with the postcard:

I sure am happy to get a stamp featuring the blessed Mother Teresa.

Wishing you happy journeys...

See more interesting postcards at Willa Stock's

Familie Hofmann

Tonie sent me this colorful Dutch postcard in exchange for a map card of one of the main islands of the Philippines. Too bad, she didn't tell me anything about the postcard. I wonder who the Hofmanns are. Are they a famous Dutch family?

I so love the interesting stamps that came along with it! The elephant with earphones is so cute!

Wishing you happy journeys...

An entry for Postcard Friendship Friday

Gone Fishing

Britta of Finland sent me this nice postcard of a little boy fishing.

It came with a flower stamp and a cute sticker.

Wishing you happy journeys...

Siem Reap's City Temple

I'm sharing two amazing postcards sent by Cheerful of Postcrossing Mom.  The postcards feature the most famous architectural Khmer wonder that is the Angkor Wat.

These amazing captures of Siem Reap's city temple made me reminisce my visit to the Kingdom of Wonder back in 2009.  A Cambodian odyssey, as I refer to it, my trip to the land of the Khmers proved to be truly unforgettable.  (See a few snapshots here.)


The Angkor Wat is truly awe-inspiring and I cannot even begin to tell you how magnificent it is.  You have to go and see it for yourself!  I long to come back and experience being transported back in time.


Thanks Mommy Cheerful for the postcards!  I also absolutely love the stamps that you used.

Wishing you happy journeys…

See more interesting postcards at

The Best Hearts are Crunchy

The Stolen Kiss

Soon, yes, soon, we'll have our chance,

To embrace each other in love's dance.

A dance which I'll take her hand and show,

The love she's yet to know.

And yes, we'll know it with that kiss,

The look of tender bliss.

The hug and warm embrace will say it all,

Fall from the precipice into the abyss,

With that first sweet tender kiss.

~P. Bere

This postcard was sent from Russia.  It features an oil on canvass painting by French artist Jean Honoré Fragonard entitled "The Stolen Kiss".  The artwork, which is said to have been painted for the bailiff of Breteuil, French ambassador to the Order of Malta in Rome, is part of the collection of the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

"The Stolen Kiss explores the theme of secretive romance and passionate moments grabbed in a fleeting moment. The painting captures a perfectly frozen moment in time; two lovers caught by the spectator in the act of stealing a furtive kiss while no-one else is looking.

The young maiden is coquettish, leaning in for the kiss while at the same time looking away back towards the other members of the party in the next room over.

The action is stilted, the figures posed in what almost seems to be a caricature of a passionate embrace. In keeping with the frivolity of Rococo style, the young lady's dress is painted with extraordinary attention to detail. The decoration and fashion becomes almost a third character in the scene.

This type of semi-erotic theme was quite popular in the heady days before the French Revolution, particularly with the French aristocracy who slouched fashionably around the halls of Versailles digging up romantic follies and gossip fodder of their own. Fragonard was the favored genius of this genre.

One can almost see in the sly look of the maiden's eyes the knowledge of the coming storm, knowing that the decadence couldn't last; and in this way The Stolen Kiss stands as a historical artifact, transcending the bounds of mere genre eroticism." (Source: artble.com. Read the entire article here.)

Many thanks to Maria for this postcard and the wonderful stamps that came along with it.

Wishing you happy journeys...

This is my share for the Wednesday postcard meme 
hosted by Willa Stock.

May the Force be with You

I won this Star Wars postcard from a lottery hosted by Kristin at the Postcrossing Forum.  I'm a big fan of the movie series so you can just imagine my reaction when I found out that I won.

It took quite a while before the postcard reached my mailbox.  I was afraid it has gotten lost.  Fortunately, it was worth the wait!


The postcard features Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, played by Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher.  In the background are Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala, played by Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman in the latter films.  It's a family picture, after all.  If you are a Star Wars fan, you'd know that Luke and Leia are twins separated at birth.  They are the children of Anakin, who later assumed the identity of Darth Vader, and Queen Amidala, who died right after giving birth to the twins.

May the force be with you...

Wishing you happy journeys...

Times Square

Here's another postcard sent by my good friends Margaux and Filmore during their USA trip.

 "Formerly named Longacre Square, Times Square was renamed in April 1904 after The New York Times moved its headquarters to the newly erected Times Building, which is now called One Times Square and is the site of the annual ball drop on New Year's Eve. Times Square, nicknamed "The Crossroads of the World" and "The Great White Way," has achieved the status of an iconic world landmark and is a symbol of New York City and the United States."

I like how the photo brings me right smack in the middle of New York City's Times Square.  It shows a glimpse of the hustle and bustle of the iconic district of the city that never sleeps.


This colorful stamp featuring the Grand Teton National Park was pasted on the back of the card:

Thanks, M & F!  You are right, I should come to NY someday! 


Wishing you happy journeys...

Head on to The Best Hearts Are Crunchy 

to see more interesting postcards.

A Lighthouse, an Erratic Boulder, and a Stonecastle

I got this beautiful postcard as a prize for solving a word puzzle back at the Postcrossing Forum. Getting a freebie card is already a treat, but getting a lighthouse postcard from Estonia is certainly such a blessing! (I have already confessed my fascination with lighthouses in a previous entry.)

Anyway, the postcard that Alexandra sent me is actually a multiview postcard showing the images of the Köpu Lighthouse, the Ehalkivi Boulder, and the Rakvere Stonecastle.

Read brief descriptions of the featured sites below:

"Kõpu Lighthouse (Kõpu tuletorn) is one of the best known symbols and tourist sights on the Estonian island of Hiiumaa. It is one of the oldest lighthouses in the world, having been in continuous use since its completion in 1531. The lighthouse is built at the top of the highest hillock of Hiiumaa island, Tornimägi which is 68 meters above sea level." (Wikipedia)

"Ehalkivi or the Sunset Glow Boulder is Estonias biggest pegmatite granite boulder at the tip of Letipea peninsula. It is the largest erratic* boulder in the glaciation area of North Europe with a height of 7 meters, circumference of 48.2 meters, volume of 930 square meters, and a mass of approximately 2500 tons." (Wikipedia)

"Rakvere Castle dates back to the Medieval Period. It was ruined during the wars of the 16th and the 17th centuries when Russia, Sweden and Poland-Lithuania were at war over the nearby land. It has been owned by Denmark, the German crusaders, Russia, Sweden and Poland." (Baltic-Castles.org)

The postcard came with this horn stamp issued just this year.

Much thanks for the card, Alexandra! I truly appreciate the effort to find out which type of postcards I love to get my hands on. :)

*FYI: A glacial erratic is a piece of rock that differs from the size and type of rock native to the area in which it rests. "Erratics" take their name from the Latin word errare, and are carried by glacial ice, often over distances of hundreds of kilometers. (Wikipedia)

Wishing you happy journeys...

See more postcards at

Trakai Island Castle

This is my very first postcard from Lietuva (Lithuania)! I got it from a swap with Grazvydas, who asked for a postcard of Coron, Palawan.

I absolutely fell in love with this card when I saw it on her trade album.  Who wouldn't, anyway?


Here are some information I got on the Trakai Castle:

"The centrepiece of the old Lithuanian capital of Trakai is its picture-postcard Island Castle. The painstakingly restored red-brick Gothic castle is perched atop an island on Lake Galvė. It probably dates from around 1400, when Vytautas, Lithuania's Grand Duke of the time, needed stronger defences than the nearby peninsula castle afforded.

A footbridge links it to the shore and a moat separates the triangular outer courtyard moat from the main tower with its cavernous central court and a range of galleries, halls and rooms. Some house the Trakai History Museum (Trakų istorijos muziejus) which charts the history of the castle. The castle's prominence as a holy site is reflected in its collection of religious art on display in a seperate gallery. In summer the castle courtyard is a magical stage for concerts and plays."  (Source: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/lithuania/sights/museum/trakai-island-castle)

The postcard came with this nice train stamp:

Ačiū for the card, Grazvydas!  Man tai patinka! 

Wishing you happy journeys...