This is Haris. A cool kitty, can be naughty at times and likes to eat alot! No wonder he looks as if he gained weight after one month traveling to Paris last February! Well, he started his journey on behalf of imajica (who wishes so hard that she could fit an envelope to travel Europe too -___- ) and has been to Paris, Rome, Budapest recently and now is staying with Essi in Lappeenranta, Finland! He will soon probably be visiting Poland and Macedonia!

Please see Hari’s travelog on ToyVoyagers for his journey diary and loads of photos! And here’s the map showing his path (before Finland)

And what does this kitty toy have to do with Postcards, you ask? :) Now let’s take a look back at my previous postcards of Paris (and Eiffel Tower!), Budapest, Rome, and Finland all featuring Haris!! :D It’s really good to know (at least) I have some postcards with places he went to!

Happy PFF from Haris and imajica to everyone!! xx

From Sire. This dress was probably from France by its name, and the period when these wide hips were in fashion was around 1755-1760. The dress is made of silk and painted by hand… so it does look fragile. And even in the past the fragility of these costumes used to prevent their exhibition.. but with expert restoration now they have made it possible for the collection to be brought out of storage. Okay, the idea behind the wide hips is that women with wider hips are more fertile than women with narrower hips, and in those days the most important thing for a woman was to get marrried :-) So the wider hips you have, the easier you can attract the (hopefully) rich men! ;)

Happy ABC Wednesday!! :D

From Cgie36. I thought it was a bear, but Cecile wrote that he’s Cubitus from a French and Belgian comic, he is a silly dog who from time to time has very phylosophical thoughts :D On the stamp he says: “I’m the one stamp in the world which can be stroked the right way.”

From Pazzolina. This is Becassine, and I guess it’s from an old comic in France coz this stamp commemorate 100 year old of Becassine in 2005… so it means the comic has exsited since 1905.. amazing! Becassine is a very naive girl who left Brittany to work in Paris as a maid, and having alot of (mis)adventures in Paris because she’s a countrygirl and hardly manages herself in a big city. I would love to read this comic!

From Sylv1. And this is Le Chat, first appeared in 1984 in Le Soir. He is an adult, human-sized cat who often comes up with elaborate reasonings and takes metaphors literally… :D
Le Chat: ”and the human contact in all this?”
Computer: “take your elbow away from my keyboard.”

- “Sending a letter.. is a game of skill”
- “The back of a sticky stamp is an excellent flypaper.”

From Pazzolina. This pretty lady is wearing the traditional costume of Fouesnant. Brittany is a place of folklore and tradtions and it shows on these costumes :)

From Pazzolina. This postcard comes with a bookmark (left side), but I have to cut it off and I did not coz I want this nice postcard stay in one piece :) These are also traditional costumes from Brittany. It has its own language and the culture is strong.. and people here do not wear traditional costume only on events or for touristy festivals, but also during religious celebrations and on weddings. Oh, and this is an image at the back of the card at the bookmark part:

Sweet-looking kids, aren’t they? And at least you can see the men costume here.. ;)

From Mumofmax. This postcards comes with a rather vintage photo that I love, perhaps it was taken during the time when everyone used to wear “traditional” costume for real.. I mean look at those clogs choes!! :) And what the woman is wearing is quite similar to the costumes from earlier cards.. And something about clogs: they’re made of wood, and mostly identical to each other, only the wood was different, so it was hard to choose!

*clap clap* :D:D Amazing, Haris!! Photo credit to Valerie Octabis. So to keep my promise here I am presenting my collection of Eiffel Tower postcards I have received so far… :) Tra la la la..

From Pazzolina. The famous Eiffel Tower! It’s standing 276m high and needs 80 tonnes of painting. You can climb if by feet (maybe like Haris did) or use the lift… but you have to change lift at each floor until it reaches upstairs. At the top, on a clear sunny day you can see 60km radius of Paris view around you!

From Pazzolina. The Eiffel Tower is seen from afar, and the Paris Seine River obviously, with pedestrian bridge A25 crossing it and a canal boat crusing it. Along the river there are Bouquinistes standing (“Bouquin” is a word use for books) and Bouquinistes sell old books, postcards (Yay! See? Loads of cards there!), old stamps etc..

From Dollart. This is actually a photo she took on her Paris trip! Not bad, isn’t it?

From Drs_Dolittle. Though the image of the couple seems to be more significant than the Eiffel tower itself… anyways.. this is rather a classy black and white view of Paris in my collection, and this picture was taken from the Notre-Dame cathedral… hmm sounds familiar… why? Oh, I already featured a card of Notre-Dame in the Paris post! ;)

From Agie. This is a medieval house in a village in Levroux, which is now used for exhibitions.

From Kaori. How pretty are these Couleurs de Bretagne houses? :) They can be found in Nevez, Brittany and are being preserved  for their particularity. Notice the awesome roof they have.

From Mumofmax. This is also one of the Couleurs de Bretagne houses, but its windows and the doors are blue because they were painted with boats paints!

Haris : “Hi!! I am in PARIS!!!!!”

From Pazzolina. Notre Dame de Paris (Our Lady of Paris) is a Gothic cathedral built on an island in the middle of the Seine, the heart of Paris. Before the Roman invasion, Paris’ name was Lutèce and the inhabitants were fishermen. Inside of this cathedral is very bright because of the stained glass windows. In the middle of this square stands the Point D, where all distances from Paris to another point in France are measured from.

FR-39679 from Kateryna, showing La Place du Tertre, a square in the heart of Paris’ Montmartre quarter. It’s the place where many artists setting up their easels for tourists, as well as for a drink.

From Vessie. This is La Basilique du Sacré-Cœur (Basilica of the Sacred Heart) also in Montmarte square in Paris. Yes, this church can be seen in previous card as well. It was built in Romano-Byzantine style and completed in 1914. I just love the sky color giving the shade of purple here.

From Pazzolina. The 3 views belong to Le Musée du Louvre (Louvre Museum), which is a historic monument and the biggest museum in Paris. It used to be the King palace before turning into a museum. The glass pyramid reflects in a water mirror where you can also see the building all around on sunny days.

From Titourse, showing the Grand Mosque of Paris, built in 1922 to honor the North African countries that had helped France during World War I. The mosque was made of reinforced concrete and decorated with mosaics, wood carvings and wrought iron brought from Morocco.

Until I can scan new postcards again, let me browse the Flickr and choose one or two cards from old collection to blog here. I have to say something about this card I received from Kaori in France through Portrait tag. It’s perhaps the first card I received with a closed up image of people, which I can’t help loving. I just adore how this image was taken. From Kaori’s message I understand that he’s a typical fisherman in France, and I like the the look he gave, which I guess during his short rest before continuing working again.