Can you hear the birds singing?

A postcard of a farm in Normandie. It looks an enchanted place. The card was sent to a Belgian artist, AF Cosyns, who worked in France from 1911 to 1950.

He received many interesting postcards from friends on their travels.

Some things never change

This is a postcard of a house in La Rochelle, our guess is that it was taken 40 to 50 years ago. I won’t say where it is, but if you’ve been there, you’ve probably walked past it.

Rob went out and took a photograph of it yesterday. I wonder what happened to the children.

Quimperlé

A typical Breton town, probably before the First World War.  Notice that the man is wearing traditional costume.  The shop sells hardware.  Here is more or less the same view today, the shop appears to be boarded up.

This is what I like to find

A really old postcard in very good condition with a lot of detail.  The card dates before 1903 as it has a non divided back.  It's in very good condition except for the photo-corner marks at the top.  I wonder who did that!

The shop sold bonnets, lingerie, sewing accesories and perfume.  Having a look around online, I discovered that this house, which was built in the 14th century, has always been popular with photographers and I've managed to find out the name of the street it is in.  The house is still there today!

The (very) old house

This house was built in the 13th century, 700 years later a postcard was made of it and just over a hundred years after that the house appears on my blog! I couldn’t find any trace of the house today, although the tourist office looks as if it perhaps could have been….

It reminds me of a mushroom somehow.

Restful place

As usual I was reading the backs of my postcards when I came across this one which struck me as interesting. The house is lovely too. Here is the story behind it:

In 1914 a soldier was injured on the front and was fortunate enough to be sent here to convalesce. The owners arranged for him to be picked up from the station somewhere in Brittany and taken to the house. He indicated his room with a little cross – ground floor on the right. The owner and his wife are the couple standing on the left side of the picture. (Click on the image for a better view)

The young man also wrote that he was looking forward to meeting up with his friends on the front again….

Jean-François Millet

This is a postcard of the house that JF Millet lived in. Perfect for an artist I think. If you’re thinking ‘I know that name’ you can read about him and his paintings on Wikipedia.