Bonne Année

In France, it has traditionally been more common to send New Year's cards than Christmas ones (although some of the New Year's ones use Christmas imagery, so two birds with one stone!). Our romantic fantasy postcards were often put to this purpose, with many messages and/or printed greetings wishing bonne année, happy new year.

Bonne Année à tout le monde!

personal collection

personal collection

I love how the person writing this had difficulty figuring out what year it was. 

personal collection

personal collection

personal collection

personal collection

Crazy Colour

Exceptionally bright colours are one of the main characteristics of these cards (with occasional exceptions), but some of them go above and beyond, to the point of nearly blinding you with a variety of garish hues (I say that fondly, of course!). The most extreme are usually toned in bright pink or purple, with extensive tinting, The effect is even more pronounced when the photographs are taken outdoors, with the colours turning the scene into a surreal dreamscape. They're almost overwhelmingly kitschy-- and just terrific. 

Joyeux Noel

Postcards for the season! Merry Christmas! 

Moi et Toi

Very few things in the collecting of these postcards make me happier than the discovery that not only was a card sent from one lover to another, but he or she has gone and labelled the people on the card with their names! Awww....

I have a number of the ones Willy sent to Aline-- every single one he labelled with their names!

(in the upper right corner-- "10 000000 big kisses"!)

Bonne Fête!

A slight stretch here-- Bonne Fête, in Quebec French, means Happy Birthday; however, in France, it's a phrase used to celebrate the feast day of a person's patron saint. Though this would have been even truer when these were made, I figured since I was Canadian, sharing them for a birthday would be all right. My birthday, that is! :)

Colour and Gold

Last month, I shared a lovely sub-genre of postcard where a tinted image was bordered with thick black, embellished with gold decoration. 

Though less common, these were sometimes done with a dye-toned image, again with a wide border and gold decoration: