The Sepia Saturday theme for September, On the Street, made me go back and look at some unwritten old postcards from my great aunt Gerda's collection.
Readers who have been following me for a while probably remember Gerda - my grandmother's older half-sister, the travelling lady's maid. When World War I broke out, Gerda "got stuck" in France, where she spent the war years working for someone living in Lyon. I've not been able to establish whom. (In my imagination, a wealthy American woman who "got stuck" in France during the war as well - but I have no real evidence of that.) What I do know, from Gerda's postcards written to her brother Gustaf during the war years, is that they were also able to travel a bit now and then, in the eastern parts of France.
Dijon is situated north of Lyon, and they/Gerda could have travelled there by train. The last of the postcards below gives me an important clue as to when she actually bought that one, though: It can't have been until July 1918 at the earliest; and may not have been until on her way back home to Sweden in 1919, after the war was over...
I like how all these street photos also have people in them.
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| 34. DIJON - Rue de la Liberté |
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| 40. DIJON - La Caisse d'Epargne |
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| 3. DIJON - Place de la République et Monument Carnot |
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| 9. DIJON - Fontaine de la Jeunesse ('the fountain of youth') |
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| 27. DIJON - Eglise Saint-Pierre - Place du Président Wilson |
Linking to Sepia Saturday 688 - On the Street
