How to start a postcard without "The weather's lovely and the sea is warm"
Published on 23 September 2026 · 3 min read
The card is in front of you, the pen is in your hand (or your thumb is on the screen), the photo is chosen, and nothing comes. So you write what everyone writes: "Hi! The weather's lovely, the sea is warm, we're having a proper rest." It isn't wrong and it isn't unkind, but it's a sentence the person has already read a hundred times, on a hundred cards, from a hundred different people. The first line of a postcard is the only one the recipient is sure to read, standing at the letterbox with the shopping still in the other hand. It deserves better than a weather report. Here are three ways to find it, and none of them requires any talent.
Start with what you can see, right now
The simplest one: look up and describe the first thing in front of you. Not the whole view, one detail. "There's a ginger cat that's been asleep on the neighbour's scooter since this morning." "The waiter has just dropped a jug of water and the whole terrace applauded." "From here I can see three red parasols and an old man who never opens his." A sentence like that does something "the weather's lovely" never will: it sits the person down next to you, on the same chair. And it's unique by definition, because nobody else saw that cat at that hour.
Start with them, not with you
A postcard usually talks about the person sending it. Flip it round: open with the person who's going to read it. "I thought of you at the market this morning, they had those apricots you love." "You told me this village was ugly. You were wrong, and the proof is on the other side." "I know you're in the middle of moving house, so here are five minutes of holiday by post." In one line they understand they're not just another name on your list. It's the opening that works best with people you rarely see: it makes up for months of silence without having to apologise for them.
Start with the photo
On a photo card, the first sentence can simply tell the story of the picture, the part it doesn't show. "Thirty seconds before this photo, Lea was in tears because a wave had taken her spade." "What looks like a pretty little lane is actually the steepest climb of my life, and I did it twice." "That's not a sunset, it's the sunrise. We didn't sleep." The photo becomes a riddle and the message is the answer, so the person turns the card over twice. It's also the ideal method when you're writing from your phone: the photo is already in front of you, all you have to do is say what's behind it.
Once the first line is down, the rest takes care of itself: two more lines, a thought, a signature. And if you really must mention the weather, keep it for the end, where it isn't in anyone's way. With UnCoucou you write all of it from your phone, we print your photo in premium quality and post it for you, from €2.49 all in. The postman won't read the first line. But the person opening the letterbox will.