In 2004, my husband took his bicycle on a tour of Western Europe, alone, covering about 4,500miles. Beginning in his hometown in Lincolnshire, England, passing through south of France, over the Pyrenees into Spain, following the Camino de Santiago de Compostela on the northern part of Spain, and through Portugal and ending in Gibraltar. He kept a diary of his trip, and when he had access to internet, post it to his blog (http://www.hittheroadat.blogspot.com) dedicated for this alone. It took him more than four months to complete the trip. What an amazing feat, eh? 

So when I received the following postcard and showed it to him, he became nostalgic...

... and dreamed about doing another cycling trip one day. With me. Why not? Having seen the beauty and charm of rural France, he is also toying the idea of settling there when we have enough resources to purchase a piece of property there. From time to time he searches for properties around the southeastern area, on the lookout for Outer banks foreclosures. Just because. :D

Christiane is married lives with her husband and two children in a town next to Avignon, one of the communes in the Département du Vaucluse. A département is an administrative division in France. There are about 100 French departments further divided into communes. One of these is the Département du Vaucluse, located in the beautiful southeast of France in the Provence region, which includes the communes of Avignon, Orange, Fontaine de Vaucluse, etc. (see postcard). These communes are bounded by the breath-taking mountains and spectacular sceneries.

And here is the stamp and cancellation used at the back of the postcard:


It's a part of an 8-set featuring the Images of France; the particular stamp above is under  the theme Classical Architecture, issued in May 2009.

I love the lady bug and flower stickers on the postcard - thanks for that personal touch, Christiane :)