What better day to have a dip into my dear collection of
1920s/30s French romance postcards? For the uninitiated, the genre is characterized by its embellished scenes of idealized romance--perfect for Valentine's Day! So, here is a selection of passionate (or at least passionately posed) kisses. Cynics can come back later.
I've included the backs, because most of these postcards, especially the more romantic ones, were in fact sent between couples. So there's the real romance in addition to the staged, a meltingly lovely combination.
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Written November 15, 1930, in Bourges, to a woman named Germaine.
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Written on September 20, 1923, in Berchon, from a man to a woman.
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Written August 21, 1928, in Marennes, from Raoul to Eugenie. |
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Written June 23, 1923, from Maurice to "Vouvou"/ "Vorro" |
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Another postcard from the same series, this one written April 25, 1923, from Laurence to Linette. The writing in the top right says 10 00000000 big kisses
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Written in Paris, March 31, 1930, from Rene to Germaine (the same one as the first postcard; I got them in the same bunch).
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Written from Paris, July 24 1929, from a man to his girlfriend "Vizzy"
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Written from "Bibi" to Louise/"Luce." |
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Written from Mainz, October 23, 1928, from Bob to his girlfrined (Raymonde; she's not named in this one, but I have
twenty-one postcards between the two of them).
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Written July 12, 1930, from a woman (Odette; I have two others between the two) to Eugene ("Gegene")
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From a woman, presumably to a man.
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Written in Lons-le-Saunier, August 5, 1931, from Paul to Simone (I have
eleven that he sent her... plus
one a friend sent them when they eventually got married!).
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2 comments:
These are always intriguing and it's even more fun to find several cards sent between the same couple. You've got some full-sized love stories in your collection!
I was wondering though: I own a few cards like this and they were all from a man to a woman (in fact, 8 of the 10 were from the same man to the same woman) and the vast majority of these were also sent by men. In the text, they often mention responding to cards sent by the lady and yet, there are nowhere near as many cards of this type written by women. It makes you wonder: Did women not go for these overly amorous styles which has caused their cards to be sorted in different categories by modern-day card sellers? Were the men simply not as good at holding on to these communications from their loved one?
My apologies for such a slow response! (I'm not notified about comments on posts older then 2 weeks, so I have to remember to check!). In my overall collection I do have more sent from men to women than vice versa-- out of the ones I've catalogued in Excel, I have 98 that are clearly from a man to a woman, versus 37 that are a woman to a man (like yours, some are multiples from the same person). You are right though that many of the men's refer to cards the women sent ("thank you for the nice card, I enjoyed it" is probably one of the most commonly seen phrases in them!). Of course I don't know for sure but I suspect the men just didn't hold onto them the same way the women did. Men tend not to be as sentimental about stuff like that, at least in my experience! That said, I do have some wonderful sets where both couples held onto their cards then mixed them up together when they finally ended the distance, which is super sweet.
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