A Special Exposition of the Paris Pages:

Vintage Paris Postcards - Page 2

by Carolyn Daily O'Connor

I went back to Chicago and married a Brit who invested in a transatlantic phone call on Easter Sunday. Now he could reach me on the internet.

I found postcards for around $3 each (15 francs at that time) in the stalls along the Seine and for a little less at the famous Paris Flea Market. Go to the Flea Market (Marche aux Puces) on weekends to get an education about whatever you collect. There I saw a single postcard priced at $250.

That one was of a Fin de Siecle kiosk plastered with theater posters shown in such fine detail that you could read the names of the cast as well as the titles of the plays. I didn't purchase that one. My biggest investment was $8 for the postcard of the street life of the Rue Jean-Nicot.

The buildings and the arrondisements have changed very little since the Grand Boulevards were laid out in the 1870s. The cards that I continue to collect -- you can find them for less in the United States than they usually cost in France -- are dated by the modes of transportation and the modes of dress.

These postcards were exchanged by real people whose children and grandchildren could recognize the names. One of Gertrude Stein's roses protects their anonymity as the messages are shared in both English and Francais.

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