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Azay-le-Rideau, Entrance to the Church
Unused, old, aging, clean. Grade: 1
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Azay-le-Rideau, The Castle- Principal Alley of the Park and North Western Tower
Castles to the right of us, castles to the left of us, and castles popping up constantly in the postcards we scan. This very old B&W-verging-on-sepia card is unused and clean. Grade: 1
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Le Chateau de Blois
The Royal Château of Blois in addition to having been the residence of the Counts of Blois and some French Kings, Joan of Arc also went there by 1429 to be blessed by the Archbishop of Reims before departing with her army to drive against the English. The château effectively controlled the Kingdom of France between 1498 and 1544 and comprises several buildings, whose construction began in the 13th century and ended in the 17th century. In total, there are 564 rooms, including 100 bedrooms with a fireplace in each, and 75 staircases — although we learn, somehow, that only 23 were used frequently. So there you go, on this unused but highly aged and heavily handled vintage postcard. Grade: 3
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Cheffes-sur Sarthe, La Chapelle
Not shown on this very old, unused card, but the chapel’s name now is chapelle Notre Dame de Saint Sulpice. The card’s reverse is aged and clean but with a sort of wavy, uneven surface. Grade: 2
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Presqu’ile de CROZON – Le Chateau de Dinan
What a weird photo from so long ago. Believe it or not, there’s at least one human in this, though you will need to card in your hand to find him. Sepia, unused, old heavily aged card with a bit of erasable pencil on the back … and an official Crozon-Bretagne website describes this same shot (about 100+ years later) as (translated) “Don’t look for the drawbridge or the turrets! This castle doesn’t need it… That’s what we call this huge rock connected to the point by an arch dug by the sea, which we can see very well from Kerloc’ beach, on the other side of the cove of Dinan, at each low tide.” We will take their word for this, Grade: 2
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Juvardeil sur-Surthe, Paysage sur la Sarthe
Very old and aged unused card. The surface of the reverse is slightly wavy and there’s some age-related staining on the front. Grade: 3
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Langres, Gate of the mills
Unused and with stains in the sky area of the front. Grade: 3
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Les Baux – Entree des Gorges des Portalets
Unused card from the distant past, clean, yet aged and with a subtly wavy reverse surface. Grade: 2
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Menton, Frontiere Franco-Italienne. Pont St. Louis. La Douane Italienne
This card was mailed in 1952 from Menton and has two types of interesting postmark, but the stamp is gone and the card is heavily stained on both sides. Yet it’s a specialised and desirable scene. Grade: 4
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Nice, Casino Municipal et les Jardins Albert Ier
Unused B&W card, from the Gilletta Cote d’Azur Artistique series (#12), some age-staining on the reverse. Grade: 2
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Paris, Le Pantheon, Urn containing Leon Gambetta heart
Google told us what we needed to know, but anything remotely useful from us would need to fill many pages, so we’ll leave it. What a complex history. The card is old, B&W, unused, and has a small bit of the upper right corner missing, as well as some spotting. Grade: 4
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Paris, Eglise Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre
Like any other building dating back to roughly 1165, this one has had enough events to fill a library, and even now, its Wikipedia entry concludes with “The church continues to be a venue for concerts featuring classical and other types of music.” Dante Alighieri, pictured here, apparently lived nearby and it’s too bad we can’s ask whether anything in the church inspired The Divine Comedy. Unused, aged but clean old postcard. Grade: 1
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Semur, La Rue Chaude et le Donjon
Granted that this unused card is highly aged, looks ancient, and is missing a small tip of the upper left corner. But the photo, if any place looks medieval, this did. Of course flash forward ten centuries or so, and the place has been touristed up a bit. A top-ranked Google website reports that “In 2010, after being closed for a long time, the basement of the Orle d’Or Tower once again became accessible. The Sciences Society helped greatly in the reconstruction of its landing stage, where the sentinels were situated. This historic place makes clear the medieval role of the tower, which was difficult to understand after Henry IV ordered the demolition of the keep following the construction of the Joly Bridge.” This is a most atmospheric postcard. Grade: 3
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Strasbourg, Palais de l’ex-Empereur Allemand
Unused old card, clean but a bit wavy with an uneven surface. Grade: 3
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Dampierre (Jura) – Les Glycines
Just because we can, we’re telling you that Dampierre is a commune in the Jura department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. On 1 January 2019, the former commune Le Petit-Mercey was merged into Dampierre, and that has nothing at all to do with this unused and very old postcard. Grade: 2
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Les Sables d’Olonne, La Plage
Les Sables-d’Olonne (“the sands of Olonne”) was founded in 1218 from Havre d’Olonne by Savary I de Mauléon. Its history is tied to the ocean for which it has served as a port and point of maritime commerce, and it became the largest cod-fishing port in France in the 17th century. During the French Revolution, the city supported the Republic, and so was often besieged—unsuccessfully, because of its port. The current local tourism industry traces its roots to bathing establishments first begun in 1825 and rail service reached Les Sables on 29 December 1866, but express service to and from Paris would only arrive in 1971. The port served as a base for American Expeditionary Forces during World War I; Germany occupied Les Sables d’Olonne during World War II and, upon evacuation of that army at war’s end, the German army made an effort to destroy the port, and mined the harbor. Showing a more peaceful scene, in 1945 someone wrote an extensive message in French completely covering the back of this card, which is postally unused. Grade: 4
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Saleve – Les Voutes pres Monnetier
Forgive our lack of diacritical marks in the header this time. The Salève, or Mont Salève, is a mountain of the French Prealps located in the department of Haute-Savoie in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. It is also called the “Balcony of Geneva”. This very old, undivided back postcard is unused. Grade: 1
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Condé-en-Brie (Aisne), l’Eglise
The most wonderful thing we recall about Condé-en-Brie is that the Marquise de Sade had a family chateau here. As for the postcard, in 1917 someone wrote a message in French to his lady friend, completely covering the reverse, so the card was not postally used. Hope she got it — someone did, because the card survived. Grade: 4
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Bourg
The stars did not align well over this postcard. The caption in dark brown however aligns perfectly over the dark brown step so we can’t read it no matter what magic we try. As well, this was mailed from Jura with multiple postmarks but no stamp remaining, so all we can guarantee is that the card is authentically old. Grade: 5
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La Basilique de Lisieux
A very old sepia card, with a very old French message penned in, though not postally used. Grade: 4
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Reims, Cathedral
To be precise: “La Cathedrale — Embrasement Nord du Porche Nord St. Nicalse et l’Ange dit: ‘La Sourire de Reims’ – Apres L’incendie”. There was a big fire in the cathedral in 1914 caused by German shelling, and we suppose that’s the basis for this reference? The old card has the beginning of a message on the back, but it was not finished and nor was the card mailed. Grade: 3
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Cosne-sur-Loire (Nievre) – Portall de l’Eglise Notre-Dame – du Pre
Old, unused card. Divided back. Grade: 2
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Deauville – Plage Fleurie, Casino, Grand Hall
Deauville seems to have a few casinos now and Google doesn’t sort them out very well. So we won’t venture any guesses, but this card was mailed long ago, with 15c stamp and indistinct postmark. Grade: 1
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Paris, The Opera
Sepia card mailed long ago with 20c stamp but indistinct postmark. Grade: 1
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Souvenir d’Alsace
This is exactly the kind of old postcard that, when put into the right location like a library or den, looks good framed. Unused, old, very minor age foxing. Grade: 1
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Avignon, Panorama du Rhone, Palais des Papes
Unused card that remains in excellent condition for its age. Grade: 1
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Lourdes, multiple views
Souvenir des Sanctuaires de Lourdes — and five views identified in the caption — on this unused, real-photo Quinault card with serrated edges. Grade: 1
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Deyme, Garonne, Attelage de Boeufs
Attelage, in French, = Coupling. Maybe not the most inspired choice for a postcard — personally we might have wanted to receive a city view instead — but this real-photo card was mailed in 1953, has its stamp and two postmarks, and almost begs you to walk behind and plow the field. Grade: 1
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Paris, La Vierge de la Paix
From the “Paris … en Flanant” real-photo series, Basilique du Sacre-Coeur de Montmartre, La Vierge de la Paix by G. Serraz, on this unused older postcard with serrated edges. Grade: 1
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Normandie
Sweetly domestic old, unused postcard. Grade: 1
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Bourgogne, Couple du Morvan
We very, very rarely stray too far from the postcard but when we went to search “Morvan” we got this from Wikipedia: “For medieval Breton leader Morvan, see Morman. For disorder affecting potassium channels in the brain and peripheral nerves, see Morvan’s syndrome. For the former member of Milli Vanilli, see Fab Morvan. For the comics author, see Jean-David Morvan.” None of these have anything whatsoever to do with the unused old folklore card. Grade: 1
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Le Trayas, aspect du massif de l’Esterel
A tourism site for this area says: “Le Trayas is a small village in the Var provence of south France surrounded by the red rocks of the Esterel mountains, an authorized district of Saint-Raphael located on the French Mediterranean coast. The appearance of the city is just amazing and eye-catching as there are numbers of bays here.” The area has evolved since the scene on this unused but quite heavily handled B&W real-photo card with serrated edges. Grade: 3
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Nice, panoramic view
From Les Editions d’Art YVON of Paris, an unused, sepia card 315 with no handwriting but four notable abrasions on the reverse from having been pasted into an album. There’s also a minor crease in the upper left corner. Yet the integrity of the photo is intact. Grade: 3
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Valescure, Le Golf-Hotel
This is an old, unused postcard, creased slightly across the upper right corner. An imposing picture, so we went to search out more information. That wasn’t any help, and we don’t know which of the different golf hotels in Valescure might be the successor to this. But in any event, the postcard survives. Grade: 2
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Vivre de la Moule
We understand the literal meaning of each word, and we understand there’s a play on words going on here, but we don’t quite get what it is. If we can remember to ask a French native … Unused card. Grade: 1
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Le Vieux – Port de Marseille
Unused card. Grade: 1
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Saint-Nizier-du-Moucherotte
Unused card 38.185 from the 1968 Grenoble Winter Olympics, captioned in French, German, and English. Grade: 1
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Disneyland Paris – Mickey, Minnie, Castle
Unused, official card FAC-022768-22196, captioned only in French (“Le Chateau de a Belle au Bois Dormant”). Grade: 1
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Marseille, multiple views
Mailed in 1982 with a postage meter, this card has a (relatively) inconspicuous thumbtack hole near the top. Grade: 4
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Route Napoleon
This nicely instructional card, showing stages from Golfe-Juan to Grenoble — and all identified, if you look closely — there’s a stamp, a readable postmark, and the beginnings of some aging. Yet how much you can learn from one card. Grade: 1