Right. So if you didn’t think I was bonkers already, I’m pretty sure you’ll be convinced now.
When my order arrived from Leonore at The Swagman’s Daughter, I asked her to include some of her vintage French postcards. They’ve been the most wonderful isolation distraction! Most of them are over 100 years old with the quirkiest images…
I’ll be posting more of these over the coming weeks, but I wanted to share this one with you today…
Lovely Anne, who is both French and an amazing sourdough baker, translated the message for me – here’s what she wrote…
“Camille, the young man writing to Mademoiselle has indeed made a few spelling and grammatical mistakes! Maybe through emotion 😂 : he is soooo delighted to have received a card from Mademoiselle and wishes so much he could see her in person for a second time so they could talk rather than write (I can see why – spelling mistakes!). I think they met at a wedding. He says that he saw the newlywed again and that he’s waiting for her to reply now! He also says that they could pretend to bump into each other next Sunday when he’s allowed to go out and see the newlywed. That’s so delightful!!! Isn’t it lovely that we’re thinking about strangers from 1912 , hoping their budding romance took off, and thinking about their lives?”
I couldn’t agree more! I hope it all worked out well for Camille and Mademoiselle. One mystery though – how did the postcard get there? There’s a stamp on the front, but no address on the back. Did you just go to the post office in France in 1912, tell them who you wanted the card to go to and a postman simply walked it to their front door? If you have any ideas on that, I’d love to hear them! ♥
Look at the beautiful handwriting. That’s an art/craft we’re losing. Do they teach cursive in Australian schools? Most U.S. schools have dropped it.
Wonderful and wonder-full… will we ever know how the possible-romance faired…
I have a vintage beautiful German birthday postcard of similar era illustrated with peacock and roses, written in in gorgeous script.
Hi Celia! I got curious about “The Swagman’s Daughter”, so I went to the website and ended up buying three cute things (a mouse brooch, old green buttons, and a coin purse in the form of a shoe). As you said, the prices were really reasonable! Thank you for the tip! :)
I’m so glad to hear that! She’s the nicest person so it’s great that you could buy from her!
I love seeing your instagram posts of your postcards – they are delightful. How amazing they have lasted this long and in such great condition.
Maybe it is a maxi card? I think I spelled it right. The stamps are on the front in those ones. I noticed several of the cards are stamped on the front.
I wonder if the postcard was delived through a mutual friend maybe. It is too bad that neat handwriting is becoming a lost art. Many of our schools no longer teach cursive.
Just googled and apparently maxi cards didn’t exist pre WWII. Also, where’s the address? :)
Fabulous postcards!
I think these are absolutely beautiful and do hope you share more . . . Being somewhat older and European-born to boot, I remember being fascinated by such as a child. Oh, we had plenty in the house :) ! In a similar vein I began a vinyl collection of 1930s Berlin nightclub music collecting from all over the world . . . very piquant . . . deliciously naughty but SO nice . . . !
Hi Celia, I’m Margaret, l live in France. I’ve been reading your blog for several years, have always appreciated it and received a LOT of help regarding jam making. That’s by way of introduction, and to say hello and thank you!
I might have the answer to the lack of address and the postage stamp being on the face of the card. I think the stamp was stuck on afterwards, as the franking mark does not extend into the image. It is still normal practice here in France to send post cards in an envelope, often provided when buying a postcard. Hence it seems very likely that is what would have happened – Camille would have posted the card to Mademoisselle inside an envelope. This would also make sense since he is trying to set up a secret tryst. Some time later, to make the cards seem quite vintage when it entered the flea market world, someone has pasted a cancelled stamp on the face of the card. Just a very strong hunch on my part. And if you are interested in trivia, Camille is one of very few names that is non-gender specific in French, could be a woman or a man’s name.
Regards from France, Margaret
The writer does say “content,” not “contente,” which suggests that Camille was a man. The spelling errors are all sounds-like, whereas there’s a distinction in pronunciation between the masculine and feminine versions of “content(e).”
Yes, Anne thought Camille was definitely a man too! Thanks!
Margaret!! Mystery solved!! Thank you so much! That actually makes so much sense too because some of the stamps on the front look like they’ve been pasted on afterwards. There are a few which have stamps and addresses on the back, but not many. Thank you for following all the way from France! xx
Much more interesting vintage, it’s a word that suggest something special has a value. Thank you