La Faction

These three rebels are from the resistance in Brittany. Some one wrote to tell us that there was an uprising when the Breton language was forbidden in schools and in churches in 1902. Today, school children in Brittany have Breton taught to them as part of the curriculum.

The card was sent early in January 1925 to wish the receiver a Happy New Year.

Bonjour from Belgium

This is a card from Belgium. Apparently cards of these carts pulled by dogs are very popular. I wonder what she was selling, water or milk?

Did they have parking tickets in those days?

A concert

This is a postcard of a concert in Blois which is another beautiful French town. I was really attracted to this card because of the way it’s coloured. Some colouring wasn’t so good, very basic and bright, blue sky, green grass, red lips etc. Please click on the card to see it in more detail.

Armistice

Here are three postcards from the first world war.

The first group are the King and Queen of England visiting the barracks for the colonial soldiers who had come to France to fight for the ‘Motherland’

Next is a postcard of the ruins in a town called Thann.

Last but not least, a group of French soldiers, can you spot Henri? Olivier told me yesterday that most of the French soldiers were drunk a lot of the time, they were given alcohol to help them cope with the horrors of what was happening around them.

Vichy

Vichy is a spa town in France and people still go to ‘take the waters’; The card was posted in 1906. I’m fond of it because of the costumes, especially the women. Here they are drinking the water which would have been beneficial simply because people didn’t drink much water in those days. Today you can buy bottles of Vichy water in any supermarket.

Looking through Google I find that the waters from Source Lucas have anti-inflammatory properties and that there is a horse race is named after it! In another report the source is named after the Baron Lucas who bought the spring where the water comes from and that the water is particularly good for skin problems. I found someone else who likes pictures of Vichy too!

As with all of the postcards on this site click on them to make them bigger

Hampton Ferry

In the early 70s I was a student at Evesham College in the UK. At that time there was an annex at Hampton, and also classrooms in a house nearby. It’s hard to believe now if you look at the college today. On the days that we were at Hampton we sometimes needed to go into town at lunch times, rather than walk down the road and over the bridge, which took ages,we would take the ferry to cross the river. You had to ring a bell and a man would come out and for a penny would pull the ferry across. It was an amazing form of transport even then. I wonder if the ferry is still there?

A couple of weeks ago, Rob was looking at cards for sale and called me over to see this card, he asked me if I’d ever heard of the ferry. It was lovely to remember those college days again.

The little devil

Little devil

Adieu toys, adieu drum,

Here comes the end of the day.

Sleep, the Sandman is passing

Dear little devil!

Henri's nephew

This card was sent 100 years ago on 27th October 1906. Henri sent it to his nephew who was 7 years old. Perhaps for his birthday? He tells his nephew that he’s always known him to be a good boy and hopes that he is continuing to be so. The poem roughly translated says.

In Autumn! Goodbye the bells
The swallows are leaving
Friend, you can marry me
When the faithful birds return

When I see cards like this one, I can’t help thinking about how easy it was in those days to please someone. Henri’s nephew would have been so happy with his postcard. I don’t think today’s nephews would be content with just a postcard for their birthday.

Imagine

Imagine going off skiing dressed like this! This postcard was sent in 1913 and I think that the piste would probably be much busier nowadays. Some modern climbers actually went off climbing in old fashioned clothes and they weren’t as uncomfortable as you think they might have been. I remember hearing a radio interview and the climber said that the old fashioned clothes weren’t as bulky as modern ones.

Help!!

I'd like to post another postcard but I can't because I have a new computer and all I get is a picture of the postcard onto one side. To make matters worse, it's all in French so I don't really know what is what when I try to get help. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible. Thank you.

Henri

Rob bought up a load of cards at an auction. When I was sorting them into some sort of order I started to notice that the handwriting was the same on the back of some of them. It seems that some photographers would take photos and turn them into postcards. That’s how I came across Henri. I would say that he was a reluctant subject and couldn’t wait to get away from the scrutiny of the camera. There is a photo of him with has comrades too, so I presume they all got photographed on that day. I get the impression that, although he fought in the first world war, Henri was a career soldier and was serving well before. He wrote home regularly even though he was a man of deeds rather than words. His family must have been so grateful for that at the time.

Mystery card

This is a strange card. It was sent in 1907 . The date hand written on the monument is 8-3-05. What is really wierd is the message in the back. It's written in code using letters and numbers, I haven't managed to work any of it out yet. I'm presuming that the language used was French;

Bu772 chi32,

j2 1 (or)7'27vu32 e2o 52sy 8470

I won't quote anymore unless anyone expresses an interest. The card was sent to a Mademoiselle Mathilde A****. Was it a secret code between two lovers or something more sinister?

Did you know?

In France in the past, postcards were franked when they were sent and when they arrived at their destination.

They were often written in pencil. Biros hadn’t been invented and fountain pens were an expensive item.

More postcards were produced in the past than are produced today. People used postcards to send short messages like ‘pick me up from the station tomorrow at four o’clock’. The postal service was reliable then!! They were also a way of having a photograph of somewhere. There weren’t so many cameras then and certainly no phones to take pictures with.

Vintage postcards

In recent years my husband, Rob has been collecting vintage postcards, mainly of the town where we live, La Rochelle, which has lots of history and interesting buildings. Gradually he started to get duplicate cards and because of this he had the idea of selling cards on eBay. The next stage was a visit to the auction rooms in town one day when they were holding a postcard, coin and stamp auction. Pretty soon we had a collection of beautiful cards from all over France.

For me the fascinating part is reading what was written on the back. All human life is there. The saddest cards are the ones sent by soldiers fighting during the First World War. My mother-in-law contributed a very special card fom Paris which had been sent back to England in 1917. Her mother-in-law had kept it carefully over the years. Her fiance had sent it to her when he was on leave. He was killed the following year.

The card above is one of my favourites. The park in La Rochelle is still the same today.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to my new blog. It's been created because I lost a previous blog. I'm going to write about things which interest me and I'm interested in a lot of things!