18 April 2017

#AtoZChallenge | O is for Obverse

This is the front the postcard I got!
Bientôt le retour. Meilleurs amitiés
['I will come back soon. Best wishes']

This is the obverse (the front and illustrated side) of a postcard sent sent by Phillip (the USA).

Should I add it to the lighthouses album? Because it is a reproduction of the reverse of a postcard that used to feature a lighthouse. I would have liked to see it, too!




Anyway, it is something nice and strange at the same time, to read these personal messages, somehow banal, written so many years ago. On this postcard, arrived with the one above, the original message was dated in 1911:

Versailles, le 5 - 2- 11
En ce moment je suis débordé de travail ce qui m'oblige a rester enfermé le dimanche, d'ailleurs, comme il faut mauvais temps, cela m'est égal. Je suis en bonne santé. Embrassez toute la famille de ma part; je vous embrasse 
de tout cœur
['Right now I am overwhelmed with work, which obliges me to stay locked up on Sunday. However, as the weather is bad, it does not matter to me. I am in good health. Embrace the whole family on my behalf; I embrace you with all my heart']

I wonder if some of the postcards I have sent will finish in a flea-market. Or maybe they had, already. How would you feel about that?


50 comments:

  1. I tried reading but without knowing the language the alphabets mean not much to me. Happy atozing
    Launching SIM Organics This April

    *Menaka Bharathi *

    *SimpleIndianMom*

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    1. I have just added a rough translation, sorry. And thanks for your visit.

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  2. My parents had a used furniture/antique business and so we would often see old postcards, some blank and some written on. It was fun to go through them. I have an old postcard of my grandparents home when it was an old hotel on the ocean, and a picture of our road where we lived as children that was taken before it was paved.
    Donna Smith
    Mainely Write
    OXPOWER

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    1. Oh, I would have spent too many hours there!

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  3. I really enjoy these old messages from the past, what a treasure to the insight of their everyday life.

    Josefine from
    Getting to the end

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    1. However, in this case aren't the intended recipients who are enjoying the old postcards, but uninvolved people (us)!

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  4. I just love the translation of the Versailles 1911 postcard. How beautifully it is worded.
    At first I thought we'd both done observe for O and then I took a closer look.
    Thanks for this new word Eva.
    O is for Observing the Ordinary

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    1. I must confess that I had to look up for this word, it was also unknown to me before I got these postcards :)

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  5. I don't think I'd mind posterity thru postcard, even if it was with strangers... ;-)

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  6. At our local flea market I'm always looking out for old postcards to what has been said. There is no chance of finding any of mine there - now or in the future.

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    1. Haven't you written any postcard? Never?

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  7. Older memoirs and letters have always taken my interest. Though I could not understand the language but I read the translation and tried to understand.

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    1. Old messages always make us curious.
      Thanks!

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  8. Clever word today.

    Phillip | O is for an Octopus named Hank He’s also Orange!

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    1. Plus I think it would be very odd to come across a postcard in a flea market if I had sent it.

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    2. I had a mail adventure in that sense. I think I told you during TFP, didn't I?

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    3. Doesn't sound familiar, sounds like I need to revisit the TFP material!

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  9. The message of the 1911 postcard is lovely. I've sent a few postcards over the years, and never considered where they might end up.

    Trudy Reel Focus
    Food in Film: Old 96er

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    1. I don't consider that either. If I did, I probably didn't write postcards/letters!

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  10. Love it! Love to read old post cards, and the notes written in the margins of books.

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  11. I'd feel sad..if such priceless cards go to trash..:(

    I loved that cursive writing on the carte postale!!

    Shubhangi @ The Little Princess

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    1. That wasn't the fate of these two, at least. We are enjoying them!

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  12. While I love reading old letters and post cards (post cards are better because one doesn't feel one is snooping with an 'open message'), I don't think I'd like it if my pcs ended up in a flea market while I was alive. Hundred years from now, I wouldn't be around to care, so mish mushkila :)

    Nilanjana.
    Madly-in-Verse

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    1. I agree with you. It doesn't matter where we aren't around here any more!

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  13. Ces deux cartes postales sont très intéressantes ,elles nous informent sur la situation géographique de l'époque ,la première est adressée à un couple vivant à Cerny près de la ville d’étampes dans le département de Seine et Oise et la seconde à Saintes en Charente Inférieure ,ces deux départements n'existent plus ,crées respectivement en 1790 et 1789 pendant la révolution Française ,le premier a été dissout en 1968 et la Charente a pris son nom actuel de Charente Maritime en 1941 .On en trouve dans les vide greniers , brocantes et autres réderies ,elles sont parfois très chères !

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    1. Je n'avais pas fait attention à la situation géographique. C'est aussi intéressant, merci!

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  14. Last week I was browsing old postcards at a local antique store. I have in mind to visit there regularly. I would rather my postcards end up at a flea market than in the recycle bin or trash.

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    1. Yes. So someone would continue to enjoy them some years later.

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  15. I also like to see the messages on the reverse side of postcards. My grandmother used to send me wonderful postcards from her travels. I wish that I still had them.

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  16. I would enjoy thinking a postcard I had written would be a little mystery to a stranger. Would they make up a story about the relationship I had with the addressee? Would they imagine something much more exciting than my reality? :)

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  17. I always love looking at the fancy cursive on old documents. They were so artistic with it!

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    1. I bet people dint't intend to be artistic... it was just the way of writing. But now, when most people didn't know their friends penmanship it seems so.

      Thanks for visiting the blog.

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  18. I love things that are "nice and strange at the same time." Way to go, Eva, thanks for that entry.

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  19. The script is lovely! Penmanship sure does seem to be a thing of the past, sadly. Sometimes, the obverse side tells a greater story than the picture! :)

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    1. The obverse (front), in this case, was the penmanship. these postcards were written in the reverse (back) by my friend.

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  20. Very cool. I would have liked to see the lighthouse as well! I do love these forgotten messages that people dashed off while traveling so long ago. I also love looking at the old handwriting. As a person who has a fascination with "le stylo plume" I find it enthralling. Thanks for sharing!
    A-to-Z-er Jetgirl visiting via Forty, c'est Fantastique

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    1. Thanks for your comment. Do you write by hand often? I do, but I am afraid that most people don't write any more.

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  21. Thanks for the translation. Old postcards seem more romantic. Maui Jungalow

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  22. It has never occurred to me where the postcards I send might end up one day. I do love to send them though, It's so much fun to seek out nice ones or unique ones and pop them in the mail.

    Melissa @ My Creatively Random Life

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  23. Obverse ... what a cool word. The card seems strange to me though.

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    1. It is a bit strange for a postcard, but I like it.

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  24. Oh wow that's unusual to have the back of a postcard printed as the front of a new one. But I like it! I wonder if it confuses the mailmen hehe.

    Here's my "O" post :) http://nataliewestgate.com/2017/04/oversight-secret-diary-of-a-serial-killer

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    1. These arrived inside an envelope, so no danger. But I have sent one of these confusing postcards in the past, and it arrived well.

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Thank you for coming. All your comments make me extremely happy.