Switzerland

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With love from Troyes, France (2017)

with love from Troyes

Hello Hilary, No sea for holiday this year for me, but typical Troyes city and champagne wineyard! It makes a change but rain and freshness are more present! Anyway it’s very plaisant to discover a new french department. A place to come Bises [kisses] Christine

Troyes looks great in the sunshine on the front of the card, but Christine has not been so lucky with the weather, it seems.

The card is postmarked 28-07-17 when most of northern Europe was suffering a very high rainfall during the, so called, height of the summer!

The stamp is the latest (controversial) version of Marianne.

Another message from Christine, who now regularly sends me cards from her travels 🙂

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with love from Berlin (1988)

with-love-from-berlin

Dear Hilary & Simon, Just travelled through E. Germany where there are only state entrepreneurs.  Wouldn’t bother with setting up a r’ment office here.  Been to Amsterdam, Hamburg, Berlin, now in Munich.  Big sking trip organised for March 6th, 1 week in Switzerland, all in Everything (apart from beer) £306 Let me know soon if interested Love Andy

Written just before the events leading up to the reunification of Germany in 1990, the prevailing state run enterprises and lack of a privatised, competitive economy in East Germany still intrigued many visitors from the West, including the entrepreneurial Andy.

As well as giving us a brief status update, the other purpose of the card is to provide details of the forthcoming ski trip, which is how I am able to date the card even though Andy has not provided the date and the postmark is only partly visible.

The 60 pfennig stamp indicates the card was posted in West Germany.  It’s a definitive commemorating 1000 years of Meersburg.

As you can see from the pencil notes on the card, I had a subsequent conversation with Andy about the ski trip and we all went to Les Crosets, Switzerland in March 1989 🙂

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with love from Quebec, Canada (c1985)

With love from Quebec

Dear Hilary, You can see it, I am in Canada.  I’ll stay here only for 3 weeks. It is a very beautiful country and automns colors are very beautiful People are very nice. I hope to have news from you very soon. Bonnes salutations et grosses bises Christine.  ***Coppet (VD) Suisse.

There is no date on this card and no legible postmark, but the 68 cent Spinning Wheel Heritage Stamp was issued in 1985.

The pictures on the front are of The Montmorency Waterfall, The Château Frontenac, The Saint-Jean Gate and The City Hall of Quebec.

Quebec City is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec.

I met Christine when I first arrived in Norway and she was coming to the end of her time there. We exchanged addresses and stayed in touch, she has included a contact update at the end of this card. Christine comes from the French speaking region of Switzerland. We continue to exchange cards and emails in faltering French (me) / English (her), and have managed to meet up several times over the years, in both the UK and Switzerland.