A birthday greeting card from France

Monaco, France

Monaco is a sovereign city-state and microstate, located on the French Riviera in Western Europe. France borders the country on three sides while the other side borders the Mediterranean Sea. Monaco has an area of 2.02 km² (0.78 sq mi) and a population of 36,371; it is the second smallest and the second most densely populated country in the world. Monaco has a land border of 4.4 km (2.7 mi), a coastline of 4.1 km (2.5 mi), and a width that varies between 1,700 and 349 m (5,577 and 1,145 ft). The highest point in the country is a narrow pathway named Chemin des Révoires on the slopes of Mont Agel, in the Les Révoires Ward, which is 161 metres (528 feet) above sea level. Monaco's most populous Quartier is Monte Carlo and the most populous Ward is Larvotto/Bas Moulins. Throughland reclamation, Monaco's land mass has expanded by twenty percent. Monaco is a principality governed under a form of constitutional monarchy, with Prince Albert II as head of state. Although Prince Albert II is a constitutional monarch, he wields immense political power.

Sunset over Bassin d' Arcachon, France

The Arcachon Basin  is a lagoon mésotidale located in the Landes de Gascogne , in Gironde , between the towns of La Teste-de-Buch south, Lege-Cap-Ferret in west and the delta of the Leyre east. He only stops the dunes 250 km from the Silver Coast , which stretches from the Gironde estuary to the river Adour . Unlike large lakes Landes , it is wide open to the Atlantic Ocean through the passes of the Arcachon basin and is a small sea inside 155 km² to tide high and 40 km² at low tide. We practice the ' oyster farming , fishing and boating. Since 8 June 2014, it houses the Marine Park of Arcachon .

Marseille, France received from UK

 Marseille , known inantiquity as Masalia, Massalia or Massilia  probably adapted from an existing language related to Ligurian) is thesecond largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 850,636 (January 2011) on a land area of 241 km² (93 sq mi). It is the 3rd-largestmetropolitan area in France after Paris and Lyon, with a population of 1,720,941 at the January 2011 census

St. Charles borromeo cathedral, St. Ettiene, France

The Cathedral of Saint Charles Borromeo is a Roman Catholic cathedral church in Saint-Étienne, France. It has been the seat of the Bishop of Saint-Étienne since the foundation of the diocese on 26 December 1970. The church, dedicated to Saint Charles Borromeo, was constructed between 1912 and 1923 in a primitive neo-Gothic style, on a Latin cross ground plan with transept and triple nave, and a belltower on the west front. The building is 80 metres (260 ft) long, 30 metres (98 ft) wide and 17 metres (56 ft) from the centre of the roof vault to the ground. The organ in the choir dates from 1930, and there is another very imposing one by A. Durand from 1968. The building was however an excessively ambitious one right from the start, and remains unfinished: it was intended that there should be another three belltowers and a dome, besides quantities of external and internal decoration presently lacking.

This card is one of my first stamped postcards received in 2001.

Eiffel Tower, France received from Taiwan thru postcrossing

Cote d' Azur, French Riviera, France received from Ukraine thru Postcrossing

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The Côte d'Azur  often known in English as the French Riviera, is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France, also including the sovereign state of Monaco. There is no official boundary, but it is usually considered to extend from the Italian border (Italian Riviera) in the east to Saint-Tropez, Hyères, Toulon, or Cassis in the west. This coastline was one of the first modern resort areas. It began as a winter health resort for the British upper class at the end of the 18th century. With the arrival of the railway in the mid-19th century, it became the playground and vacation spot of British, Russian, and other aristocrats, such as Queen Victoria and King Edward VII, when he was Prince of Wales. In the summer, it also played home to many members of the Rothschild family.

Rouen Cathedral, France

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Rouen Cathedral is a Roman Catholic Gothic cathedral in Rouen, in northwestern France. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Rouen and Normandy. A church was already present at the location in late 4th century, and eventually a cathedral was established in Rouen as inPoitiers. It was enlarged by St. Ouen in 650, and visited by Charlemagne in 769.

Eiffel Tower at night

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The Eiffel Tower  is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It was named after the engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair, it was initially criticised by some of France's leading artists and intellectuals for its design, but has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest structure in Paris and the most-visited paid monument in the world; 6.98 million people ascended it in 2011. The tower received its 250 millionth visitor in 2010.

La voie Verte map, France

La Savoie map, France

Savoie  is a French department in the Rhône-Alpes region of the French Alps.

Together with the Haute-Savoie, Savoie is one of the two departments of the historic region of Savoy that was annexed by France on June 14, 1860, following the signature of the Treaty of Turin on March 24, 1860. For history before 1860, details of the annexation, and modern regionalism, see Savoy.

Le Finistere map, France

 Finistère is a department of France in the extreme west of Brittany. Finistère is the westernmost region of France (excluding the overseas departments in North and South America and the Antillas). By several criteria, Finistère can also claim to be the most coastal department in Metropolitan France. Of its 283 communes, 118 are located on the coast. Its total coastline of approximately 1,250 km (776.71 mi) accounts for almost a quarter of the entire Brittany coast-line.

Le Calvados map, France

Calvados  is an apple brandy from the French region of Lower Normandy (Basse-Normandie).

Penmarc'h, France

Penmarc'h or Penmarch is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France. It lies 18 km south-west of Quimper by road.

La mairie de Paris, France

The mayor of Paris's administration, as well as municipal and departmental elected Paris , who sit at the city hall .

Sare, Finland

Sare  is a village in the traditional Basque province of Labourd, now a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France on the border with Spain. It is backed by the Pyrenean mountain range, which forms a basin around the village open to the east and the north. Its geological history explains the formation of caves that were occupied by the Aurignacian. The bronze age left a number of funerary monuments on the slopes and mountain plateaus of the region. Today, it's territory forms an enclave in the Navarre, a region of Spain, with which it shares a 25 km border. This in particular has had significant consequences on the history of the village, with centuries of pastoral agreements with neighbouring Spanish villages. During the Peninsular War the Anglo-Portuguese Army led by the future Duke of Wellington breached the frontier and repelled the French troops who had stationed themselves in forts on La Rhune.

Bigouden, France

Bigouden, (In French, Pays Bigouden), historically known as Cap Caval, is, along the Bay of Audierne, the most south-western area of Bro Kernev in Brittany, south-west of Quimper, defined since 1790 in the French departement of Finistère. The designation was an informal label taken from the name of the distinctive headdress traditionally worn by the local women. By the end of 19th century, the name then slipped to designate the women of the area, then to describe all its inhabitants. It has since been formalised within the administration and promotion of the region.

Monflanquin, France

Monflanquin is a commune in the Lot-et-Garonne department in south-western France. Built in 1256 as a military bastide town on a strategic north-south route, it changed hands several times during the Hundred Years' War.

The village is a member of the Les Plus Beaux Villages de France ("The most beautiful villages of France") association.

Souvenirs From Paris, France

Paris  is the capital and most populous city of France. Situated on the Seine River, in the north of the country, it is in the centre of the Île-de-France region, also known as the région parisienne, "Paris region". The City of Paris has an area of 105.4 km², and as of January 2013, a population of 2,273,305 people. With an estimated 10,843,285 inhabitants as of 2015, Paris's urban area is the most populous in the European Union, and third most populous in Europe, behind Moscow and Istanbul.

Pays Basque, France

The Basque Country or Euskal Herria (sometimes Eskual herria ) is a territory refers to the ethnic or population of tradition, culture and language Basque (the Basque language ) and the Basque history . It stretches from the Ebro to theAdour , on France and Spain , straddling the western end of the chain of the Pyrenees , and is bathed by the Bay of Biscay .

It is difficult to determine accurately the contours of Euskal Herria , the administrative boundaries do not always coincide with ethnic and cultural boundaries . According to the Academy of the Basque language , this is the Basque territories named in 1643 by writer Axular in the foreword of his book "Gero" , namely the seven traditional Basque provinces (Zazpiak Bat ): the Labourd the Soule , the Lower Navarre , the Navarre , the Biscay , the Alava and Guipuzcoa .

Based on this definition, Euskal Herria covers 20 500 km ² and has 3 million inhabitants , divided into three distinct political entities: two Spanish regions , the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country (three provinces, Alava, Guipuzcoa Biscay and represent 35% of the territory and 72% of the total population) and Navarre (more than 50% of the territory and 19% of the total population) and a portion of the French department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques  : the French Basque Country (Lapurdi, Lower Navarre and Soule represent 15% of the territory and 9% of the population).