Vintage postcards: a touch of nostalgia! Loire Valley, France.

Vintage postcards: a touch of nostalgia!

It is always a real pleasure to look through a collection of vintage photos taken here and there in Touraine. As you look through the album of vintage postcards, a past is unveiled that may seem very far away from us, but in fact it is only about one hundred years ago.

Loire Valley through vintage postcards

A few recurring themes can be seen in the pictures below, which often come from the departmental archives: the châteaux, gardens, rivers, vineyards and wine cellars, and towns and villages, from Tours to Chédigny. All the elements making up Touraine’s DNA. You can even see a few bikes, a tramway and small boats: the transport of the past has a bright future!

Vintage postcard: Château de Chenonceau, France.

Vintage postcard: Luzillé, France.

Vintage postcard: city of Tours

It is worth noting the composition of the photos and the attention given to certain details. The fact that these vintage postcards have come down to us shows their artistic quality, conveying remarkable images of everyday life. They are the delight of large numbers of collectors, who are known as deltiologists, from the Greek deltos, “writing tablet, letter”.

Vintage postcards - The old chateau of Champchevrier, in Loire Valley, France. Old picture of the castle.

Château de Champchevrier, France.

And you might be interested to know that the first postcards were sent in Austria in the 19th century. In France, the earliest postcards featuring a reproduction of a photograph seem to have been sold in 1891 in Marseille. In 1904, the French post office decided to divide the back of the postcard in two, with the left-hand side for the message and the right-hand side for the address. So the photograph could take up all the front!