In my mail yesterday, 10/20, a World Postcard Day postcard from my old friend and Stanford colleague Ryan Tamares, mailed from him (in Mountain View CA, a few miles from my place) on 9/22, to go through the World Postcard Day site in College Station TX on 10/1 (the day itself) and then wend its way to me (whether by intention or misadventure) as if had come by surface mail from the place in the card’s picture, Vienne en Isère, France (note: not the much better known Vienne en Autriche / Vienna in Austria / Wien in Österreich).
I’ll put off the occasion and its sponsoring organization to an appendix to the main posting, which is about the card itself: the town pictured in it, the shop in that town pictured in it, and its source.
The town. From Wikipedia:
Vienne is a town in southeastern France, located 35 kilometres (22 mi) south of Lyon, at the confluence of the Gère and the Rhône. It is the fourth-largest commune in the Isère department … Vienne was a major centre of the Roman Empire under the Latin name Vienna. [AZ: the name of the city in Austria is a Latinized version of the German Wien, named after the river Wien]
The shop. Librairie Lucioles, ‘Fireflies Bookstore’.
The source of the card. Mirabelle Korn, This Is My Bookstore: 100 Postcards of Beautiful Shops Around the World: a box of 100 full-color postcards (Chronicle Books, 2020; $24.95).
Appendix: World Postcard Day. Declared to be 10/1 by the Postcrossing organization. From its site:
The goal of this project is to allow anyone to send and receive postcards from all over the world!
The idea is simple: for each postcard you send, you will receive one back from a random postcrosser from somewhere in the world.
— 1. The first step is to request to send a postcard — we’ll give you the address of a random member and a Postcard ID (e.g., NL-12345). Pick a postcard, write a friendly message, along with its Postcard ID and the address given.
— 2. Now all you need to do is mail the postcard from your nearest postbox or post office.
When your postcard arrives, its recipient will register it using its Postcard ID. This will make you eligible to receive a postcard from another member — and where your postcard will come from is a surprise!
— 3. One day, you’ll check your mailbox and a postcard from someone far away will be waiting for you!
— 4. Now it’s your turn to register the postcard using its Postcard ID. That’s it!
Ryan Tamares is an enthusiastic postcrosser, and often posts on Facebook copies of cards he’s received. He also sends me entirely local postcards for notable occasions, especially gay-signifcant occasions, and cards from his travels. I think this is the first time he’s combined a Postcrossing card with an Arnold card.
October 22, 2025 at 1:00 pm |
What a wonderful happenstance. I was standing there almost to the day three years ago (bored from the tour guide droning on about the temple that I wanted to sneak away and browse the bookstore).