Tips, ideas and little stories about postcards and the joy of writing to the people you love.
Tips & how-to
You want to send a postcard, but all you have is a phone number. How to ask without giving the game away, where the address may already be hiding, and what to double-check so the card actually lands in the right letterbox.
Postal culture
Between 1914 and 1918, millions of cards left the trenches every day for villages across France. Free postage, secret sector numbers, embroidered silks, wartime "godmothers": what these small rectangles still tell us a century on, as France prepares for 11 November.
Destinations & travel
Land's end, low light and a sky on the move: a lighthouse is made for the 10 × 15 format. Where to stand, when to go, what to do about wind and sea spray, and who to send it to — our tips for a lighthouse card that doesn't look like the fridge magnet from the gift shop.
Occasions & feelings
On 1 November, French families go to the cemetery. Your grandmother will be there as she is every year, and you'll be far away. A postcard written ten days ahead says what the evening phone call never quite manages: what to write, which photo to choose, and who else to think of that week.
Tips & how-to
You know how to write to your mum or your best friend. But a card to your in-laws, the colleague covering for you, or the neighbour watering your plants? What to say, which photo, how to sign: our tips for finding the right tone without overdoing it.
Postal culture
Post, mail, courier, stamp, postman: behind every word we use for the mail hide exhausted horses, leather bags and a drum. A short walk through the words you use without thinking whenever you send a card.
Destinations & travel
Trawlers resting on the mud, stacked crab pots, yellow oilskins and a grey sky: a fishing harbour in October is a ready-made colour palette. Tide times, viewpoint, colours and details — our tips for bringing home a real postcard rather than the photo everyone takes from the car park.
Tips & how-to
No trip, no big news, and yet you feel like writing. Four ways to fill a postcard with a completely normal week.
Postal culture
In 1879, a country postman in south-east France tripped over a stone on his round. Thirty-three years later he had built a palace single-handed, inspired by the pictures he delivered. The story of the Facteur Cheval, and what it says about a simple card.
Destinations & travel
Chambord, Chenonceau or the little château at the end of the lane: everyone leaves with the same head-on photo. Step back, find the reflections, hunt for details and use the autumn light — how to bring home a picture worth turning into a real postcard.
Occasions & feelings
Asking someone to be a godparent often happens in passing, or by text. A postcard gives the question the weight it deserves: which photo, which words, and when to send it.
Tips & how-to
The last line of a postcard is the one that stays with people once the card is up on the fridge. Three ways to end it well, plus a word about how you sign off.
Postal culture
We write it without thinking, yet the postcode is younger than it looks. Where it came from, what France's five digits actually tell you, and why it took an advertising campaign to get people to use it.
Destinations & travel
A rainy day on your trip isn't a lost day — it's the moment the city starts to shine. Reflections, neon lights, bright umbrellas: how to turn a wet afternoon into a postcard nobody expects.
Occasions & feelings
Someone you love is changing jobs, and the first Monday is always a long one. A card written the week before lands at just the right moment: which photo, which words, and why it beats a "so, how was day one?".
Tips & how-to
The first line of a postcard is the only one that's guaranteed to be read, standing at the letterbox. Three ways to find it in ten seconds, none of them about the weather.
Postal culture
That little ring of ink over the stamp is more than 350 years old. It was invented to catch slow postmen, then used to prove a date and to advertise whole towns. It still dates your postcards today.
Destinations & travel
Empty sands, softer light, beach huts closing up for the year: September is the most photogenic month on the coast. Perfect for postcards nobody else will be sending.
Occasions & feelings
A tiny room in halls, a new city, a letterbox that's never had anything in it: in mid-September, a postcard from home does something a phone call can't. Which photo to pick, what to write, and what to save for the phone.
Tips & how-to
The holidays, Granny's birthday, a colleague leaving: when a postcard comes from several people, here's how to write in several voices without it reading like an attendance sheet.
Postal culture
For thirty years, writing on the back of a postcard was against the rules. How a single vertical line, in the early 1900s, created the layout we still use today.
Destinations & travel
Smudged glass, reflections, scenery rushing by at 200 km/h: train photos have a bad reputation. Three simple habits turn them into postcards full of motion.
Occasions & feelings
A falling-out that drags on, a silence that grows: sometimes a real postcard does what a phone call no longer dares to. How to apologise in three lines, without excuses.
Tips & how-to
A grandmother, an elderly aunt, a neighbour who has just moved into a care home: a few simple rules so your photo card gets read, re-read and shown to the whole floor.
Postal culture
Your friend is crossing the world with no letterbox in sight. Poste restante still works almost everywhere — here is how the old postal trick works.
Destinations & travel
Golden rows, morning mist and grape-harvest buzz: September is the finest month to photograph wine country. Here's how to turn it into a glowing postcard.
Occasions & feelings
First day of school, first student flat, new job: a card in the letterbox gives more courage than a text. Our ideas for back-to-school cards.
Tips & how-to
Paper, a pencil and a few wobbly words: how to help a child send their very first postcard, without taking the pen out of their hands.
Tips & how-to
Two weeks before the date: the simple rule of thumb so your postcard arrives in time, for a birthday, a celebration or a holiday hello.
Postal culture
Some postcards turn up half a century after they were posted. What they say then, and why it should change the way you write yours.
Postal culture
Why words written by hand still carry a weight of their own, and how to keep that gesture alive even when your message goes out printed.
Destinations & travel
Washed-out lagoon, white sky, dull greens? Here is how to capture an island's true colours in your photos and turn them into a stunning postcard.
Destinations & travel
Backlit leaves, morning mist, russet trails: simple tips to photograph an autumn forest and turn your walk into a postcard worth keeping.
Occasions & feelings
The wedding-day photo or a picture of you today? For a wedding anniversary, a photo card often touches more than a bouquet. Our ideas to get it right.
Occasions & feelings
Can't make the housewarming? Send a photo card to celebrate their new home: photo ideas, what to write and the best moment to post it.
Tips & how-to
Yellow faces, dark backgrounds, red eyes? Turn off the flash and move closer to a window — the simple recipe for soft, sharp indoor photos.
Tips & how-to
Vertical photo, 10x15 postcard: how to crop without losing heads or scenery, and keep what matters most once your photo is printed.
Postal culture
A monument, a face, a rocket or a comic-book hero: every stamp tells the story of its country and its time. A short history of these travelling squares.
Destinations & travel
Colourful stalls, morning light, real life: the local market is often the best photo of a trip. Here's how to get it right and send it as a postcard.
Destinations & travel
Floating mist, mirror-still water, low golden light: simple tips for photographing a lake at dawn and turning it into a real postcard.
Occasions & feelings
A photo card to thank your wedding guests: which picture to choose, what to write on the back and when to send it.
Occasions & feelings
Two or three well-chosen sentences beat a polite get well soon. What actually comforts someone who is ill or recovering, and why paper works better.
Occasions & feelings
Tie, mug, corkscrew: your dad already has too many. A real photo postcard, printed and mailed to him, outlasts anything else you could buy.
Tips & how-to
A child getting mail with their own name on it is a small event. Here is how to choose your words and your photo so the card gets kept.
Tips & how-to
Sharp eyes, soft light, a simple background: practical tips to nail a photo of your dog or cat and turn it into a postcard that makes people smile.
Postal culture
Yellow in France, red in London, blue in the US: a quick world tour of postboxes, an everyday object that says a lot about its country.
Postal culture
From collection to the morning round, discover the real journey of a postcard: yellow postbox, sorting centre, postmark and doorstep delivery.
Destinations & travel
Grey snow and shadowed faces? Your camera gets fooled by all that white. Two simple tweaks for bright winter photos, worth printing as a postcard.
Destinations & travel
Narrow lanes, old stone, evening light: simple tips to photograph a country village and turn your photo into a postcard worth sending.
Occasions & feelings
Office cards get signed in a rush and forgotten just as fast. Here's how a personal photo postcard makes a colleague's retirement truly memorable.
Occasions & feelings
A group text gets buried fast. A photo card with your new address ends up on the fridge, so your favourite people always know where to write.
Tips & how-to
Nine people to write to, one single message: the simple way to send a real postcard to your whole family in a few minutes, not a whole evening.
Tips & how-to
Four lines, not one more: how to find the right words on the back of a postcard, without clichés and without staring blankly at your pen.
Postal culture
Sending grandma a postcard from your holidays is a ritual that crossed the generations. Why it still works, and how to keep it alive today.
Postal culture
In films and novels alike, the postcard says what characters cannot. A look at the movies and books where it plays a real role.
Postal culture
Deltiology is the art of collecting vintage postcards. Where the passion comes from, and how to get started without losing your weekends.
Postal culture
A card in the letterbox, and the whole day shifts. What makes paper mail such a quiet pleasure to receive.
Postal culture
From the rural postman walking thirty kilometres a day to the electric-bike round: what has changed, and what hasn't moved an inch.
Postal culture
Mailbox full of ads, phone full of notifications: the postcard is back because it gives you something a screen never will.
Postal culture
From 1869 Vienna to the photos on your phone: the story of a small piece of card that has outlived every technology meant to bury it.
Destinations & travel
Instead of an album buried in your phone, send yourself a card at every stop. You come home to a real travel journal you never had to make.
Destinations & travel
Quiet streets, morning light, telling details: simple tips to photograph a city and turn your favourite shot into a postcard worth keeping.
Destinations & travel
Scale, low-angle light, framing: practical tips so your mountain landscape keeps all its grandeur once printed as a real 10x15 postcard.
Destinations & travel
Turn your road trip into a story: send a postcard from every stop and build a travel diary that arrives by mail, one stage at a time.
Destinations & travel
That golden late-day light turns an ordinary holiday photo into a postcard. When to catch it, how to frame it, and why it prints so beautifully.
Destinations & travel
On holiday by the water? Here's what to point your camera at to turn your best sea photo into a real printed postcard, sent for you.
Occasions & feelings
A bouquet wilts in a week. A photo card, your mum keeps for years. Why it lands better, and how to get it right.
Occasions & feelings
Someone close is going through a hard time and you don't know what to say? Here's how to write a card that truly comforts, simply.
Occasions & feelings
Between the group text fired off at midnight and the card standing on the sideboard, there is a world of difference. Why paper wishes still hold up.
Occasions & feelings
A congratulations text is forgotten by Friday. Here is how to write a card for an exam, a diploma or a driving licence that gets kept for years.
Occasions & feelings
A card sent for no reason at all is the one that lands hardest. Why it works, what to write when there's nothing to celebrate, and who to send it to first.
Occasions & feelings
A text vanishes down the feed, a postcard gets kept for years. How to write a real thank you after a gift, a dinner or a favour.
Occasions & feelings
When you love someone far away, a real card in the mailbox changes everything. Here's how to turn it into a ritual that lasts.
Occasions & feelings
Grandmother's Day is coming up. Here's why a real photo postcard, dropped into her mailbox, touches your grandma far more than anything else.
Occasions & feelings
Announce a birth or congratulate new parents with a photo card: simple, sincere words for a moment that deserves more than a text message.
Occasions & feelings
Someone you love is celebrating their birthday far away? Here's how to find the right words and send a card that really counts.
Tips & how-to
Address format, delivery times, postage: what changes when your postcard crosses a border — and how to make sure it arrives safely.
Tips & how-to
Good news: your phone is more than enough for a crisp 10x15 print. Here are the real traps to avoid before you print your photo.
Tips & how-to
A postcard you receive is a little treasure. Here's how to keep your postcards from fading and show them off nicely at home.
Tips & how-to
A text is read in three seconds and forgotten just as fast. A postcard gets kept. Here's what paper really has that pixels never will.
Tips & how-to
A clear, complete address is all it takes for your postcard to reach the right letterbox. Here's how to write it so it never gets lost.
Tips & how-to
Portrait, landscape or group shot: the photo you pick changes everything depending on who opens the mailbox. Here's how to get it right.
Tips & how-to
Light, framing, subject: a few simple tips to pick the photo that will look best once printed as a real postcard.
Tips & how-to
Blurry shots, tight framing, bad light: the most common mistakes on a photo postcard, and the simple habits that make one worth keeping.