Paris 1910

One hundred years ago this month Paris was flooded. There were plenty of postcards depicting the event which caused a lot of damage, but what is more interesting is the back of the postcards. Ordinary people telling their friends in other parts of the country that they were safe. Can you imagine the state of the water which invaded people’s homes? The smell?

Just one of the streets that were flooded

The railway station at Orsay resembled a swimming pool.

The Navy was even called in to help

The Eiffel tower contemplating its refection

Happy new Year

We had snow for a few minutes this morning - not enough for a snowball. I hope that you are warm and safe wherever you are.

Happy Christmas!

I don't think anyone will have much time for blogging for the next week. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Lady taxi drivers

In 1906 Paris saw the first lady taxi drivers. There was a lot of interest in these brave women. They soon learnt to drive motorised taxis too. I was pleased to find an excellent history in English which explains their story in more detail. Does image number 8 look familiar? Picture number 30 is of special interest to me.

Our Première Dame

There aren’t many photographs of Madame Henriette Poincaré. She was the wife of the president of France, Raymond Poincaré, during the first world war. I was interested to see that she has Italian blood like our present First Lady. She always accompanied her husband whenever it was possible and worked hard during the war to send out parcels, not only to the soldiers, but to the families and children they had left behind as well as offer them support.

She and her husband loved to spend time in the gardens at the Elysée palace. In 1917 an Orang-utan escaped from a nearby circus, found its way into the gardens and tried to drag her up a tree. Of course this news was censored at the time. She must have been absolutely terrified.

Here you see her arriving in Limoges in 1913 accompanied by the Minister of Agriculture (her husband had already arrived).

Sapeurs Pompiers de Paris

These are examples of the different uniforms Parisian fire-fighters would have worn around 1900. In France the fire service deal with all emergencies. Though I’m still wondering about the one with the gun…

As always click on the image to get a better view.

Continuing the story of Odette :

Odette was born in 1899. I’ve discovered that her father was in the army. He sent her a postcard of the officers mess with a cross marking the window of his room, she was eight years old at the time. Her grandmother’s Chateau is not for sale, as I thought, there are two chateaux with the same name. Her Grandmother who signed her cards 'Granny' was a Countess!

In 1906 Odette went to stay with friends and afterwards they sent her these two lovely postcards. I presume that her friends were called Denise and Marguerite

Jeannic

"A travelling photographer is passing through the area. Jeannic is five years old, we must have a photograph of her… but she is terrified by the man and his machine! So daddy has to be at her side. Come on Jeannic watch the birdie…"

This is where I live

It hasn’t changed that much since 1900 when this card was sent. Unfortunately the boats have changed. There are more people who sail for leisure and fewer fishing boats.

Fritz

In June 1902 Barnham’s circus was passing through the town of Tours in France. One of the performers was an was an enormous 80 year old elephant weighting 7 tonnes called Fritz. Not surprisingly, one day he decided he’d had enough of being a circus elephant. One story goes that he refused to move, the other that he went beserk. The outcome was that he was killed. He was taken to be stuffed and came back to Tours nearly a year later and has been there ever since, here are some 5 and 6 year olds at a workshop at the museum in Tours.

Another auction, another family

I’m sorry that I haven’t found time to post for a while. We attended an Auction last week. It’s the furthest we’ve travelled to an auction so far so we took the opportunity to stay in a romantic hotel and mix business with pleasure. We also bought some beautiful cards. One of the lots came from chateau so I’ve been piecing together bits of information about the family. They owned two chateaux in the middle of France , one of which is up for sale at the moment (that’s why the cards were being auctioned I suppose). Around 1900 a lot of the cards were written to a little girl called Odette. She seems to have passed from chateau to chateau to stay with her grandmother, perhaps while her parents were away. Judging by the wording on the cards she was much loved by everyone. Above is one of the cards she received in 1904.

Note: I was having problems uploading this image, in case it happens to you, you just need to click on the terms of service box.

A real donkey in Pyjamas

In June I wrote about Donkeys wearing Pyjamas on Ré Island. well here is the real thing!. In the background you can see windmills - they’ve all gone now.

Some new postcards

We’re very excited about some new postcards that we bought this week. They are mainly of La Rochelle and are in excellent condition. Recently a shop in town which dealt with postcards, stamps and coins closed down and I can’t help wondering if they come from there originally. For a little while I’ll be sharing a few views of the town. This first postcard is of a street in the quarter where I used to live. Nothing much has changed at all, except that the shop has gone. I’m fascinated by the goods on display, especially the little horse…

Hyperrealism

Here is a modern postcard for a change. I love the colours; pinks and greys with just a touch of yellow. “Jeune Homme au Plateau” –young man with platter - was painted by Christopher Harmon Cheung in 1986. He is a Hyperrealism painter.

The correspondence on the back is interesting too. Written by the father of the gallery owner wishing someone good luck. A hopeful artist looking for somewhere to exhibit his paintings perhaps?

Abbé Miroy

This postcard made me feel overwhelmingly sad. Click on the image to get a better view of the bronze statue of the Abbé Charles-Eugène Miroy (sorry, it is in French but you can see a picture of him), who was shot by the Prussian army after the armistice had been signed, when he was 42 years old,. The sculptor was Charles René de Paul de Saint-Marceaux and this was one of his earlier works.

Abbé Miroy’s tomb is still regarded as a symbol of resistance and flowers are regularly laid there today.

Sur le Pont d'Avignon

When the Saint Benezet bridge was built in in the 12th century there were 22 arches, but floods, conflicts and time have taken their toll and only four remain. These children were perhaps singing the famous song for the photographer when he took the picture for this postcard around 90 years ago. They all look very happy to demonstrate their dance.

My daughter Dom went to visit the Avignon bridge a couple of weeks ago. You have to pay to visit today.

Marié de L'Isle

I’ve mentioned the French photographer Henri Manuel a couple of times here. Today I came across this lovely portrait of the French mezzo soprano Célestine Galli-Marié known as Marié de l’Isle, it was taken by him. I haven’t managed to find out much about her at all. She was born in 1840, married a sculptor called Galli and died in 1905.

Tomorrow we’re off to an auction in another town. I wonder what treasures we’ll find.

Donkeys in pyjamas

A little bit of local culture. Across the way on the Ile de Ré, the donkeys have always worn pyjamas! Even today you can find them if you know where to look. This might seem to be a strange idea, but in the past the working donkeys were troubled by mosquitoes biting their legs. This card shows a donkey with his mistress and the caption reads: “Around here everyone wears the trousers… even the mistress.”

An afternoon stroll

Today we’ll take a trip in our time capsule and stroll down Avenue de la Gare, stopping for a drink outside the Café de la Poste (on the left) on the way. Although the edges of the postcard are faded, details like the moustache on the man on the right can easily be seen with a strong magnifying glass. The card was sent in 1927.

This is what I call Paris

An original view of the Eiffel tower around 1907