BORING POSTCARDS

State Agricultural Farm of PGR Konarzewo, 20 kilometers from Poznań (Posen), in the western part of Poland.  Postcard form the end of 1980.

State farms (PGR) were an organization operating on nationalized land during the communist era in Poland. Their organizational structure was modeled on the swochoses operating in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. This model of operation was introduced by the authorities top-down in Poland after 1949, which was associated with the collectivization of agriculture and the fight against private ownership of farms. These farms survived until 1991, when Poland switched from a socialist socialist economy to a liberal capitalist economy model.

THREE NOT VERY INTERESTING BUILDINGS

1. A Hotel in Toulouse, France, built byAntoine Dumay in 1590

2. La Chambre d'Amour, Anglet, France

This shows the lighthouse and 'La Chambre...' which is a vacation center for families. Loosely translating 'La Chambre d'Amour' as 'The Room of Love, the center is probably not as innocent as it looks but is a center for family orgies.

Bradford, I can spot a 2CV  a couple of Renault 4s, a Peugot 205, and a 2CV Mehari. What else can you identify?

3. Khourigba, Morocco

There's always a man -- never a woman -- at the front of on of these Arab postcards, always in traditional dress: I wonder why?

State Agricultural Farm of PGR Trzcianka, 100 kilometers north  from Poznań (Posen), in the western part of Poland. 

Postcard from about 1975 year.

A VERY MIXED BUNCH FROM FRANCE AND TUNISIA

1. Big Bull from Laguiole (Aveyron) France,

Laguiole is famous for its knives. The Big Bronze Bull by Georges Guyot was installed on the place du Foirail in 1947.

2.  Le Lac at Verneuil-sur-Seine (Yvelines), France

3. The beach at the Ile du Contenin at Carteret (Manche), France

Boring, but the ruins of the old church at the bottom are interesting

4. Lots of Pots from Jerba, Tunisia

5. One Man and His Blanket and Lots of Sheep, La Corniche des Cevennes, France

State Agricultural Farm of PGR Żydowo - Czerniejewo, about 30 kilometers from Poznań (Posen), in the western part of Poland.  Postcard form the end of 1980.

Grodzisk Wielkopolski( (niem. Grätz) and local area, about 30 kilometers west from Poznań (Posen), in the western part of Poland.  Postcard form the end of 1980.

My great grandfather was born in Poznan, Poland!

'been there on the way to Warsaw in 2002...

boring in Utah, too :-)

not a car on the streets of Salt Lake city? (1961)

Ooh, it is so hard to consider all boring postcard boring… Katerina’s Utah card I think sooo interesting… Which (giant?) creaturen would walk these natural formed (?) steps, and what causes (and does mean) the cloud or smoky mist bell in the valley? A baby volcano? People (or other (giant?) beings) sending smoke cloud messages? Or….?

To be short: is a postcard which inspires and tells stories still a boring postcard?

It is a mining site in Utah, in the ol' days of the 1960's,

most likely "giants" or "aliens" destroying the environment? 

But a bit boring as a "wish-you-were-here" postcard????

Brodnica, Żabno, Manieczki - small villages about 30 kilometers od south form Poznań (Posen). Postcar made after 1990.

Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)

It is very nice news that you have family roots related to Poznań (Posen). This is the city where I was born and I have been connected for almost 40 years. Now it is partly Warsaw, but I have never severed my contacts with Poznań.

Postcard prepared to promotion in DDR new car: FSO Warszawa ( FSO 223K / 224K). Production of this car started in 1965, so postcard was edited in the same time.

Thanks Raphael,

Here's some Boring Postcards of East European cars  -- 2 Trabants (both 601 Specials) and a Volga GAZ 21

I'd love to own/drive the green one; boring, but in a pleasing way.  The classic 1960s OPEL Rekord has always been one of my favorites.

Żary (Sorau) - town in cenrtal west part of Poland, near border with Germany. Postcard send about 1985.

Poznań (Posen) Hotel "Markury" - postcard from the mid 60'. 

MISCELLANEOUS SELECTION OF BORING POSTCARDS

1; Hotel Residencia Europa, Alicante, Spain

2. Hotel Et Hana Beach, Sousse, Tunisia: view of the garden and pool

3. Arcangues, Basques Country, France

"A beautiful house"

4. "La Percheronnette", Convalescent Clinioc, Authon-du-Perche, France

While you are convalescing you can enjoy the Boring Postcard

5. Monument to the WW2 Deported, at the Lake, Natua, France

6.  Cave Cooperative (of Jean Babou), Limoux (Aude) France

7. Dolomites, Zoppe di Cadore, Italy

8. The Lighthouse, Port-la-Nouvelle (Aude), France

I walked to this lighthouse yesterday! The sea-view is now spoiled by an off-shore wind farm. But this Postcard  was sent in August 1990 when there was no off-shore wind farm...and when I hadn't discovered this part of France

2 BORING POSTCARDS WITH ROQUEFORT CHEESE FOR IUOMA FOODIES -- recipes provided on request. PLUS ONE FROM THE ROQUEFORT CAVES

1. Les Palets Prinsky

2; L'omelette lapeyrière (missing 2 eggs!)

3. Cellars of Roquefort

"One of the cellars of 'Societé' Group Roquefort is slowly maturing under the century-old vault.'

"Now listen, Sylvie -- a photographer is coming tomorrow to take a photo of our Caves, so please take off those dirty old slippers you usually wear around here, and put on something more elegant...please!"

IN ANTICIPATION OF NEXT YEARS BEIJING WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES...here is a Postcard from the Savoie (France) Winter Olympics, 1992, showing a Marmotte, getting ready to start in the Cross-Country Skiing Event

SUMMERY BORING POSTCARDS (it's cold here right now, so it's nice to see some sunshine)

1. Camping La Roque-d'- Antheron, Sylvacane-en-Provence, France

Not a Happy Camper in sight!

2. La Piscine de la Petite hollande, Montbéliard, France

This is not in Holland (grande or petite), and neither is there one swimming pool here -- there are two

3. Boring Holiday Postcard from Vigeois, France

Lots of pedalos (and the same photo is here top right and bottom left), but not many happy holidaymakers

4. Boulevard Clémenceau, Draguignan, France

Postcard with airplane - Hapag Lloyd - Airbus A 300 B4.

TWO MOR FROM KATERINA FROM HER TRIP WEST IN 1961 (Wow! 60 years ago!)

1. Eagle Gate Salt Lake City

" This was formerly the entrance to the private house of Brigham Young. The Bee-Hive house is located on the left in the foreground, and the State Capitol can be seen in the background."

Brigham didn't have a dog or cat, nor a hamster or a goldfish: he had an eagle.

2. Kennecott's Bingham Copper Mine, Bingham Canyon, Utah

"The Mine is located approx 28 miles SW of Salt Lake City. It is the largest surface copper mine in North America...Blasting occurs daily in the afternoons."

Katerina -- why were you collecting Boring Postcards like this 60 years ago? Did you know that their day would eventually come on IUOMA?

Tarnów (a city in the south-eastern of Poland), Restaurant "Stylowa" - postcard from 1969 year.

Next photos, dedicated especially to Bredford, with cars from CCCP.

Next car from CCCP. "Volga GAZ 24" in different versions.

Next cars from CCCP.

Zielona Góra ( Grünberg ), cinema "Wenus" at night. Town in west part of Poland, near border with Gemany. Postcard edited in 1967.

Warsaw, camping nr 123. Postcard from the 1990s.

Augustów, a city surrounded by nine lakes and the vast Augustów Primeval Forest. The water capital of north-eastern Poland, a perfect place for canoeing, sailing, boat, catamaran or gondola cruises. Postcard sent in 1986 year.

Żary (Sorau), a town in the western part of Poland, located close to the border with Germany. In the years 1888–1945 there was a famous porcelain factory here. Postcard issued around 1985.

Grodzisk Mazowiecki, a small town near Warsaw. Postcard edited in 1971 year.

Vienna, about 120 years ago, by a photographer who had other things on his mind, obviously.

Kołobrzeg, a city in north-western Poland, a health resort located on the Baltic Sea, with three summer sea baths. A postcard showing a new housing estate, issued in 1967.

Poznań (Posen) - postcard edited about 1985. 

Description on the reverse of the postcard: the city of Poznań International Fair; industrial, scientific and cultural center. A city of remarkable beauty of monuments, splendor of buildings and greenery. Panorama of the city, Mikołaj Kopernik Roundabout, Classicist Guardhouse, reconstructed Town Weight House, Renaissance Town Hall, Center - Red Army Street. "

I knew I was saving this postcard for something...

Rowy - "Thaiti" cafe in an adapted old torpedo boat. A tourist town (formerly a fishing village) located between Łeba and Ustka among pine forests on the Baltic Sea. There are 2 summer swimming pools at the seaside. The Rowy West swimming area has a total length of the coastline of 400 meters and 4 descents to the beach, while the Rowy Wschód swimming area has a total length of 200 m and 1 access to the beach.

Postcard send 1975.

FOUR  BORING POSTCARDS FROM JEAN-PHILIPPE GILLIOT: thanks J-P!

1. Greetings from Westende, Belgium

A strange one. The left-hand photo features an empty baby-carriage thing (but no baby), a fat lady in a white dress, and a man taking a leak on a red lamp post. The other photo appears to be a beach scene, but there is no beach, and the sandy area is dominated by a large building. And then there is a green car on a pole (originally, it was at beach level, but a man came along, took a leak on it, and, like Topsy, it grew).

2. Hotel Savoy, Madeira

"My home away from home", it says on the back: discuss. Also rather strange, because you can't actually see the hotel, just a pool-side changing room. And that waiter seems to be rather too attentive -- but perhaps that's why she has come away from her home.

3. A stately drawing room in a Belgian castle

A publicity card for the Belgian magazine La Maison d'Hier & d'Aujourdhui. Yesterday for sure

4. A Belgian Castle

From the same magazine; Today, for sure.

Sztum (German: Stuhm) - a city in northern Poland. The most attractive monument in Sztum is the 14th-century Teutonic castle, the seat of the Teutonic mayor and the summer residence of the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order. From the original design, the southern range, the entrance and prison towers with the defensive walls have remained. The remaining buildings on the castle hill come from the 19th century.

A housing estate is shown on a postcard from 1978.

Województwo Częstochowskie - Częstochowa region - postcard form the mid. 1960. 

Town Częstochowa is located in  south part of Poland. Its most famous place - the Monastery of the Pauline Fathers at Jasna Góra Monastery with the image of the Virgin Mary - is visited by millions of pilgrims from 80 countries around the world each year. A peculiar phenomenon on a global scale are foot pilgrimages with which even over 200,000 pilgrims come. The longest routes are over 600 kilometers long, and it takes up to 20 days to cover them.

(NOT A CHRISTMAS) BORING POSTCARD FROM JOHANNES GROSS, GEVELSBERG, GERMANY

Shulzentrum West, Gevelsberg

Except you can't see much of the school -- just the top stories and roofs of two buildings. Half of this Boring Postcard features trees. A quarter, some cows that, to me, are more interesting as the three right-facing ones seem to be almost identical, and I wonder if they were cut outs posed here to make the card more interesting.

(Alternative title: 'Gevelsbe'rg Cows'?)

Thanks Johannes, welcome to the Group, and please keep sending me Boring Postcards

Kalisz, cafe and restaurant "U Barbary i Bogumiła" - postcard form 1977.
Kalisz is the second largest city in the Wielkopolska region, situated in the picturesque valley of the Prosna River. The oldest traces of human activity in the city and its surroundings date back to the Mesolithic. Intensive settlement in the period of Roman influence resulted from its location at a significant point in the "Amber Route" connecting the Roman Empire with the Baltic coast. The importance of this settlement center is evidenced by the fact that around the middle of the 2nd century CE The Alexandrian scholar Claudius Ptolemy in "Geography" mentioned the town of "Kalisia", identified by researchers as Kalisz. Due to this record, Kalisz prides itself on having the oldest written record among Polish cities.

BRZEZINY - Siedziba KP PZPR, ul 15 Grudnia, pl Jedności - lata 70. BRZEZINY - The seat of the Polish United Workers' Party, ul. 15 Grudnia, Unity Squarei - the 1970s.

Zgierz - a city in the central part of Poland, one of the centers of the textile industry in the 19th century. Postcard from 1986.

It's not every day you see something this boring.

Baiabk, a village in the central part of Poland. On a postcard from the 80s, the "Sezam" shopping pavilion, the so-called soc-modernism.

BORING POSTCARDS FROM KATERINA

1. Hotel Lido Thasos island Greece, where Katerina went in 1970

2. "Night View of Picturesque(sic) Salt Lake City, Utah", from a trip that Katerina made in 1961 with her mother to see Aunt Clara

3. "Haying time in the Green Mountains, this scene taken in Cabot, Vermont"

Green hay, but what do you expect (Hay is yellowish/strawish here)

Słupsk - (Stolp) -  a town near the coast of the Baltic Sea. Postcard send in 1969 year. "Tenement houses at the Red Army Square."  During World War II, the city experienced a terrible history: on March 8, 1945, the Red Army entered Słupsk. German troops fled, the population resisted, and yet the Red Army exterminated 80 percent of downtown. They just burned them. However, a few monuments have been preserved.

BORING ANSICHTKAARTEN VAN HELEEN (how to learn Dutch, too) Part 2

1. Verclickerd op jou! (Clicked on you!)

2. Mail from Holland