A German North Sea Fishing Village.

A German fishing village on the North Sea coast. This pretty card was sent to me by Michaela.

Arc de Triopmphe

The Arc de Triomphe (Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile) is one of the most famous monuments in Paris. It stands in the centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle (originally named Place de l'Étoile), at the western end of the Champs-Élysées. There is a smaller arch, the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, which stands west of the Louvre. The Arc de Triomphe (or as said in English: "Triumphal Arch") honours those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars, with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces. Beneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I.

The Arc de Triomphe is the linchpin of the historic axis – a sequence of monuments and grand thoroughfares on a route which goes from the courtyard of the Louvre, to the Grande Arche de la Défense. The monument was designed by Jean Chalgrin in 1806, and its iconographic program pitted heroically nude French youths against bearded Germanic warriors in chain mail. It set the tone for public monuments, with triumphant patriotic messages.

The monument stands 50 metres (164 ft) in height, 45 m (148 ft) wide and 22 m (72 ft) deep. The large vault is 29.19 m (95.8 ft) high and 14.62 m (48.0 ft) wide. The small vault is 18.68 m (61.3 ft) high and 8.44 m (27.7 ft) wide. It is the second largest triumphal arch in existence (after Arch of Triumph in Pyongyang). Its design was inspired by the Roman Arch of Titus. The Arc de Triomphe is so colossal that three weeks after the Paris victory parade in 1919, (marking the end of hostilities in World War I), Charles Godefroy flew his Nieuport biplane through it, with the event captured on newsreel. Thank you Maria for this nice card.

“Once Upon a Time in the West”

Once Upon a Time in the West (C'era una volta il West) is a 1968 Italian epic spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone for Paramount Pictures. It stars Henry Fonda cast against type as the villain, Charles Bronson as his nemesis, Jason Robards as a bandit, and Claudia Cardinale as a newly widowed homesteader with a past as a prostitute. The screenplay was written by Leone and Sergio Donati, from a story devised by Leone, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Dario Argento. The widescreen cinematography was by Tonino Delli Colli, and Ennio Morricone provided the film score.

In Europe, the film was a substantial box office success, playing for multiple years in some cities. However, it was greeted with a mostly negative critical response upon its 1969 theatrical release in the United States and was a financial flop. The film is now generally acknowledged as a masterpiece and one of the best western films ever made.

In 2009, it was named to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant and will be preserved for all time. This film poster card was sent to me by Bettina.

Missile Boat of the erstwhile Yugoslavian Navy

This card brings back nostalgic memories of my days in the Missile Boat Squadron (with OSA class boats) in the Indian Navy. SFR Yugoslav Navy guided missile gunboat of the Končar class, which was a class of fast attack craft that was built for the SFR Yugoslav Navy in the late 1970s. Following the break-up of Yugoslavia one craft went to the Croatian Navy whilst the remaining five went to the Montenegro Navy. As of 2009 three vessels remain in service.

As planned by the Yugoslav navy, the entire class of six ships was due to undergo extensive overhauls and modernization during the early 1990s. The ships' anti-ship armament was to be replaced by the Swedish state-of-the-art RBS-15 system after the removal of the old Soviet P-15 Termit missiles. The stern Bofors 57 mm gun was also due to be removed and replaced by a CIWS AK-630M unit. However, only one ship managed to undergo these changes. It was the RTOP-402 which, as the war in Yugoslavia broke out, was being worked on in a Croatian shipyard and thus remained in Croatian service. All other RBS-15 missiles (out of roughly 100 delivered by the time) were captured by the Croatian forces. This ship entered Croatian Navy service as RTOP-21 "Šibenik" in late 1991 and saw additional light upgrading and overhauls over the years.

The class is named after the first vessel which in turn was named after Rade Končar. Armed with two SS-N-2B launchers, the Končar-class boats were modeled after the Swedish Spica class. This card was sent to me by Karoly from Serbia.

Mountain Lion

The cougar, also known as puma, mountain lion, mountain cat, catamount or panther, depending on the region, is a mammal of the family Felidae, native to the Americas. This large, solitary cat has the greatest range of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere, extending from Yukon in Canada to the southern Andes of South America. An adaptable, generalist species, the cougar is found in every major American habitat type. It is the second heaviest cat in the Western Hemisphere, after the jaguar. Although large, the cougar is most closely related to smaller felines and is closer genetically to the domestic cat than to true lions.

A capable stalk-and-ambush predator, the cougar pursues a wide variety of prey. Primary food sources include ungulates such as deer, elk, moose, and bighorn sheep, as well as domestic cattle, horses and sheep, particularly in the northern part of its range. It will also hunt species as small as insects and rodents. This cat prefers habitats with dense underbrush and rocky areas for stalking, but it can also live in open areas. The cougar is territorial and persists at low population densities. Individual territory sizes depend on terrain, vegetation, and abundance of prey. While it is a large predator, it is not always the dominant species in its range, as when it competes for prey with other predators such as the jaguar, grey wolf, American Black Bear, and the grizzly bear. It is a reclusive cat and usually avoids people. Attacks on humans remain fairly rare, despite a recent increase in frequency.

Because of excessive hunting following the European colonization of the Americas and the continuing human development of cougar habitat, populations have dropped in most parts of its historical range. In particular, the cougar was extirpated in eastern North America in the beginning of the 20th century, except for an isolated sub-population in Florida. However, in recent decades, breeding populations have moved east into the far western parts of the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. Transient males have been verified in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Illinois, where a cougar was shot in the city limits of Chicago and, in at least one instance, observed as far east as Connecticut. This impressive card was sent to me by Graham of Kansas City.

The town of Salo in Finland

Salo is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Finland Proper region. The municipality has a population of 55,243 (January 31, 2011) and covers an area of 2,168.27 square kilometres (837.17 sq mi) of which 181.78 km² (70.19 sq mi) is water. The population density is 27.81 /km² (72.0 /sq mi). In Finnish salo means woodland, backwoods but also a wooded island. It is thought that Salo has meant the island that over thousand years ago existed to the South of the current town but is today a hill, not even very close to the sea. The municipality is unilingually Finnish. Salo has existed as a centre of rural commerce since at least the 16th century, grewn in the location where the Great Costal Road, the important East-West road, crossed River Salo; the river provided the fairway to the sea. In 1887 Salo officially became a market town and, in the beginning of 1891, an independent municipality. The area of the municipality was initially very small, only 0.65 km². In 1932 it grew to 18 km² when areas from neighbouring Uskela and Halikko were annexed to Salo. Eventually Salo became a town in 1960. Today its main claim to notability is as a developing and manufacturing plant for Nokia, and can therefore be considered as the original home town of Nokia phones. Nokia also is one of biggest employers in this region. Salo is located between the capital Helsinki and the provincial capital Turku, making it a busy small city. The short distance from these bigger cities keeps the Salo region and its business life growing. Farming also plays a considerable part in the area.

On the card is featured the Salo Art Museum (the round house in the upper part of the card). In the lower part of the card is a locomotive shed with an ancient steam engine by the name of Kana (meaning chicken). This nice card was sent to me by my dear friend Ella.

Centenary of the “Chemins de fer de provence”

The stamp on this maxi card and the card itself were issued to commemorate the 100^th anniversary of the “Chemins de fer de provence” an old railway company located in the south of France which is now running a unique route between Nice and Digne-les-bains. This route, that opened in 1911, is locally referred as the “train des pignes” (the pine nuts train) as indicated on the stamp.

In 1861, Alphonse Beau de Rochas, an engineer from Digne who invented the four-stroke internal-combustion engine, wanted to link Nice, annexed to France the previous year, to Grenoble via the Var Valley, Digne-les-Bains and Gap. But, it was not until 1882 that the military authorities granted their approval for the project, which could then begin. To adapt to the very rugged relief, the engineers chose to build a narrow-gauge railway: a 1-metre gauge - instead of the standard 1.40 metres - provided for tighter curves (100 metres instead of 300 metres) and lower construction costs. In all, there are no less than twenty-five tunnels, sixteen viaducts and fifteen metal bridges on the line’s 150 kilometres.

The ‘Train des Pignes’ (pinecone railway) finally reached Nice in 1911 and was inaugurated on 3 July.
Despite many obstacles - climate, finances, the rising popularity of automobiles, war... - and thanks to close fruitful cooperation with local economic players (local communities, schools, Chamber of Commerce and Industry, travel agencies, associations), CFSF- Chemins de Fer de Provence was able to anchor the railway in the local economic fabric, thereby offering regular transport by train from the Mediterranean Sea to the Alps, also revealing the wealth of the cultural and tourist heritage of the 30 communes along the line. This pretty maximum card was given to me by my dear friend Maria.