Our neighbours have sold their house and are moving. We had them around for drinks last night, and in the course of conversation my interest in old postcards came up. It emerged that they had a box full of them, found in the attic of a previous house they had owned. A deal was done, and so for 9€ I became the new owner of what turned out to be nearly 1000 old postcards. Most are mundane, of no historical or photographic interest - grey & white prints of buildings and landscapes. But there are some gems, including some postcards from the First World War. The card above seems to be a standard format, Model A it says, for operational troops. It has spaces for the senders information on the front, and on the back instructions to give no information that may be useful to the enemy. It was sent from Versailles in March 1916, but I can't decipher any of the handwriting or the name of the sender. The Palace of Versailles and its grounds were used at the time for recreation of resting troops, as a military hospital and an administrative centre.
The overlayed picture is of a grave in the cemetery of our village, of Lt.Paul Chaubet, killed in action in the first month of the war.
The Centenary of the end of the war takes place on Sunday, a major event here in France where 1.7 million French citizens lost their lives.
There is a program on the radio as I type this , where ordinary Irish people are telling the stories of their relatives who died in WW1 . . It;s thought of the 250000 Irish that went to war 35000 died . How nice to have all those postcards to read through.. and lets hope all combatants of WW1 are now at rest.
