Joyeux Pacques

"Joyeux Pacques," of course, is French for Happy Easter. Happy Easter!!

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personal collection

Poisson D'Avril

In France, April Fool's Day has long been associated with fish. Why? Apparently "the origins are unclear." Darn! Well, for whatever reason, a fish it is. Back in the days of the postcard craze, April 1st cards were common, almost always using fish as a central motif-- people holding fish, fish personified (I recently saw a postcard of two fish pushing a baby fish in a stroller), fish as random parts of the design. These postcards did it too. 

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personal collection

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!

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personal collection

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

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personal collection

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personal collection

Joyeux Noel

Postcards for the season! Merry Christmas! 

La Fête de la Sainte-Catherine

St. Catherine is, among other things, the saint of unmarried women.  On St. Catherine's Day (25th November, ie, today) it was traditional in France for unmarried women to pray to her for a husband, and, especially if they were over 25, to send each other cards on the day. These postcards were popular for this purpose, featuring, as they do, single women looking fabulous (you will notice many of the cards featuring single women were sent for St. Catherine's Day), or women looking fabulous with the attention of an adoring man. Quite a few have already been featured in this blog (and I apologize for the couple repeats today; I thought they were worth repeating!), but here's a couple more for the day. Bonne fête!