School's out

This postcard remained in my memory ever since I first saw it. We’d put it to one side with lots of other cards to look at again at a later date. The later date has come and it’s now for sale.

This is a photograph of what was left of Boulevard des Ecoles (school boulevard) in the town of Lens in the North of France. I imagine the boy in the picture is standing on what is left of his school. Lens was first bombarded in October 1914 and the town was occupied until 1918. The population of 18,000 was reduced by half. How did those people manage? Where did they go?

The town also suffered a lot of damage during world war II

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.