Guadeloupe

Welcome welcome to the opening of Season 2014 on Ana's postcard blog! I truly hope that this season will be more fruitful than 2013, with many many great postcards shown here (and bragged about :P)

And also Merry Christmas to all my Orthodox friends who (like me), are celebrating Christmas today.
If I haven't told you before, the whole fuss is more focused on New Year's Eve, not so much on Christmas...and personally, I do not really care much about either honestly...Im just not fond of such *must* celebrations...though I must admit I did have a fabulous time for New Year's Eve...the guy at the place where we were celebrating tried so hard to find me a Depeche Mode song...all he managed was some Personal Jesus remix, but even that was cool =)

2014, postcards-wise, has started really slow...way too many non-working days already...but Im really really looking forward to tomorrow, with so much hope that my mailbox is going to be FULL! High stakes, I know, but Ive so much missed getting lots of mail! And sending it as well...here next to me lies a nice pile of cards that is off to the PO tomorrow...wohoooo! =)
And thank you all for staying faithful through all these years! Hope to still be seeing you in 2014 as well :)

And now down to some cards...all received in 2013..(I dread at the idea of having to open a new box for the 2014 cards...my previous years are already a mess of their own =)

Anyways, my first card for today is this super cool map of Guadeloupe...it is an old map made by the French Geographic Society in 1758. If I understood it correctly, it has rivers, forts, islands, ports..and some other points marked. As Olga says, nowadays, most of the names marked on the map have stayed the same.
I've already written about Guadeloupe in general in my first post here

as for the stamps, they are French of course...and just before posting this card I was wondering how one actually can be sure it was mailed from Guadeloupe or any other of those French territories using French stamps....well, see that number on the cancellation, 37752A? That is the key :)

as for the stamps, the horse stamp comes from a set of 12 plough horses stamps issued in 2013, where on this one you can see the Le Cob Normand horse. The other one is from the green vegetables series issued in 2012 in a set of 12, with this one showing the Lamuyo pepper.

Thanks a lot Olga for the great card and lovely stamps!

Guadeloupe

I know that just recently I promised I wont brag any time soon with some rare country....but then THIS arrived in my mailbox...and how could i possibly ignore it and leave it for some time later :)

And I can also classify it under my map card collection :D
Seems like a lovely place, where it is hot all throughout the year! The 'calendar winter' has only just began, and im already sick and tired of it! In summer, even getting soaked in the rain can feel nice.....which reminds me, i DO need to get a bigger umbrella...mine are mostly those which can fit into a purse or a bag...but i want one which even may not be very convenient to carry it around, at least it will cover you whole....and id love one with a transparent blue colour..i know ive seen it with some of my friends, so its not non-existent...i just need to look for it.
Guadeloupe itself is an archipelago in the Eastern Caribbean Sea, and is an overseas department of France, which also makes it a part of the European Union but doesnt actually fall under the Schengen Agreement. Which means that the visa liberalization that has been in force here since 19th December, wont really help me to travel here. Btw, im really annoyed with all the fuss and euphoria that has been created here due to this visa liberalization. They made it seem that as of now, we'd be able to travel absolutely everywhere within the Schengen Zone. I mean, POR FAVOR!! Do they deliberately avoid the financial issue?? Really....all those people who had travelled so far, will keep travelling...the visa issue doesnt play much role for them...while for the rest of us, mortal people, visa or no visa, its pointless to think about it if i dont have the required finances. Moreover, each country had imposed some rule about the proof you need to have that you have enough financial means in order to get inside the country...and they have requirements on daily basis....so if I want to go to Germany, i need to have around 40 euros per day...if i want to stay ten days, thats equal to 400 euros....if i want to go to Norway, i need 60 euros per day!!! And if I want to go to Slovenia, I need 70 euros per day?!! I mean, lets get realistic here...so stop making the visa liberalization as the greatest triumph you could have achieved. Take care of the unemployment first, increase people's salaries, and then tell me that i can travel more freely within Europe!

there is this song that has been repeatedly played on the radio lately....rather annoying one...i dont like this sort of hawaii-sound songs....but by some coincidence, the song 'arrived' along with the arrival of my postcard...and i doubt there will be any time soon an appropriate card to post the song...plus they mention Christmas as well...so here we go....

Happy Birthday Guadeloupe =)

and now the stamp....from what I read, Guadeloupe for many years now has been using the French stamps...so even though this card has a French stamp, there is no discrepancy in the postcard-stamp relation. So i can say that this card was originally sent from Guadeloupe. However, im a bit confused about the cancellation...shouldnt something Guadeloupe-related be there? Im more than sure that the lady who sent me this card, mailed it from Guadeloupe indeed, not France....but i still need some clarifications here from someone who has more knowledge in this :)