United Kingdom

Toy Story 3, concept art by Bob Panley [sp?]

This cute card comes from my friend Annie who I've known since she was a student at a summer camp I used to work at.  She now lives in Manchester, UK. 

BY-1894042

Apparently this card celebrates the Belarussian holiday of Cosmonautics Day.  

New Zealand

NZ-144747

Lost in Space - New Zealand

From the back of the card: Central Otago covers 11, 000 sq. km and has less than 16,000 permanent residents, giving you the ability to experience what it is like to be "Lost in Space."

Russia

Krasnodar

This card comes from the Postcrossing meet up in Krasnodar, Russia.  Originally called Yekaterinodar ("Catherine's Gift" as in Catherine the Great of Russia), the name was changed after the Russian Revolution to mean "Gift of the Reds". 

The card was a surprise card sent by my friend Liza who lives in the city and attended the 2016 meet up! 

Ukraine

UA-1435550

A French postcard of early 20th century sledding via animal, from Ukraine.

Poland

Superman III

This is a Polish postcard featuring original artwork for the Polish release of the film Superman III, released in 1983.  Poland was and is well known for their original artwork for foreign films released in Poland. 

The card comes with the below stamps.

USA - Illinois

The Interior of the Palm House on the Pfaueninsel Near Potsdam, 1834 - Carl Blechen (German, 1798-1840).

The painting features a number of women laying and sitting on rugs.  The painting is on display at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Australia

Dame Edna

Moonse Ponds Vicoria 

First Day of Issue 20 January 2006

This maxi card of Dame Edna is over tten years old.  The photo was taken in 1990 an the card was issued and stamped on the first day of issue back in 2006; 11 years ago today!! 

USA - Illinois

Carolan the Irish Bard, c. 1844 0 James Christopher Timbrell (Irish, 1807-1850)

This painting was featured in an Art Institute of Chicago exhibit on Irish Art a few years ago.  The subject of the card is Turlough O'Carolan (center of the card, 1670 – 25 March 1738) who was a blind Irish harpist and bard.    

Russia

RU-4666785

Chersonese, St. Vladimir's Cathedral

This card features St. Vladimir's Cathedral in Chersonese, near Sevastopol' in Crimea, the Russian occupied part of Ukraine.  The city was a Greek colony in antiquity and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The cathedral is supposed to be built upon the place that St. Vladimir was baptized.

The card was sent from Pyatigorsk, Russia closer to the Russian-Georgian border.

Ukraine

UA-1434485

This very old postcard is of the opera house in Odessa, Ukraine on the Black Sea.  The image may look a bit like the opera house in Vienna, but that's probably because the same person built it as well! 

The card also comes with these awesome Ukrainian stamps, including a Ukrainian Postcrossing stamp on the left.

USA - Texas

US-3993029

Stop & Shop Magnolia Market in Sunny Waco, Texas

This card is pretty awesome.  If it looks a bit unusual on the scan that's because it is a non-paper postcard.  It is literally made of a thin piece of wood!  Apparently the store featured on the ad is well known and is or was on featured on a reality tv show in the US.

Turkey

My friend Neslihan from Ankara sent me this card of a pigeon!

Australia

AU-491702

Flowers of Communism

This card comes from not Russia or even Georgia, but from Australia.  The text, written in Georgian and Russia reads "Children's Week- children are the flowers of communism.  The poster the card is based upon is included from "Russian Revolutionary Posters 1917-1924" by an unknown artist.

Russia

RU-4669395

Kazan

The Kazan Kremlin

Spain

Barcelona

This card is of the Explatory Temple of the Holy Family from my friend Laura who lives in Barcelona.  Possibly best known in English as Sagrada Família, the temple broke ground in the 1880s and will not be finished until probably around 2028!

France

The Large Hadron Collider - At Discovery's Horizon

So, I have a friend, Kate, who has worked at CERN in Switzerland and has worked with the Large Hadron Collider which, according to Wikipedia "is the world's largest and most powerful particle collider, the largest, most complex experimental facility ever built, and the largest single machine in the world."

She found a bunch of LHC postcards and sent me one from what she affectionately calls Switzerfrance.  Thanks again, Kate!

Czech Republic

CZ-900173

Dobruska

Iceland

My Vacation in Iceland

Iceland is a fairly rare Postcrossing country.  I've so far only sent ONE card there and never received an official postcard from there.  Even trying to arrange a private, direct swap with Icelanders has proven difficult.

However, my friend Alma from Houston, Texas traveled to Iceland in 2016 and was willing to send a postcard to me from there! 

This card lists various activities that people do in Iceland from Steaming in a sulphuric pond to "catching an Icelander" and trying pickled ram parts. 

Alma actually put "x"s towards the ones that she tried or did while there. 

USA - Indiana

This card of the campus of Purdue University features the Bell Tower.  The tower is a relatively new addition to campus, but the bells from it date back to the older original Heavelon Hall buildings.  The originally building held a bell tower as part of it and burned down and then rebuilt literally one brick higher.  After another fire, the building was rebuilt without the bell tower and the bell tower as a stand alone feature was rebuilt around the turn of the 21st Century. 

The white stone structures in the foreground that the bell tower is photographed through appear to be parts of the large fountain on the nearby Engineering Mall of the campus.

Russia

RU-4678589

Plates and dishes with solar designs

Russia

RU-4678215

Russian Tea Drinking

Special Post:: Happy New Year & Changes to Par Avion

Happy New Year!

If this card looks familiar, that's because it is the second time it has been featured on Par Avion!  It was previously featured on May 13, 2014.  The card is a Russian New Year card.

For 2017 I am going to try something differently.  Instead of posting every day, I'm going to move to posting on weekdays as well as the occasional post on holidays and special weekends. 

I am also going to be featuring special collections of postcards I've collected over the years.  This includes: collections of postcards from late Soviet-era Moscow, Spain, and another bunch of cards from Poland.

I hope everyone is having/has had a wonderful holiday season and here is to new postcards in the new year to come!