Recollection: Mother’s Youth (second part)

In my last post about my mother’s youth I mentioned how much she liked hydrangeas. She also loved roses and many other flowers. The rose above is called The McCartney Rose and it has a lovely fragrance. I planted it this year and have seen several beautiful blooms already. I cut a couple of stems today and placed them in a vase in the kitchen. I can’t resist smelling them every time I come close to the vase.




My grandmother had a predilection for roses also. My grandfather sent her many postcards showing roses, like the one below. My grandfather had sent so many rose postcards that it was hard to select just one.



Here is a pin below showing a picture of my grandfather when he was young. My grandma cherished it.



My grandmother was so well versed in chemistry, herbs and plants that she made her own skin lotions and creams. I remember a small bottle where she had a special mixture of mysterious things and rose petals – it smelled divine. My younger daughter inherited this interest because when she was a small child she constantly liked to mix very strange liquids for her “special experiments.” My grandmother had flawless skin and kept all her teeth, which in those days was quite amazing. She wrote many treatises on her findings but unfortunately I do not have any. Below is my grandmother at her desk.



My grandmother gave courses in chemistry but I do not know more than that. Whatever she did, it had been very appreciated because the French Government awarded her with the order of the “Palmes Académiques” (Order of the Academic Palms) which is a decoration bestowed on her for her contribution to education and culture in France. She was very proud of this decoration and wore it on her lapel during official occasions. She gave it to me later in her life. This order was founded by Napoléon Bonaparte in 1808. He appreciated how important education was and wished to recognize French people in academia, education and culture who had helped the citizenry in these spheres. It is amongst the world’s oldest orders of chivalry – here it is below.



Because my mother wrote her memoirs before she passed away I have information on her life to supplement what she already told me, but not so much on my grandparents (her parents.) Below is a picture showing mother on the left, grandmother, great grandfather and grandfather. Notice how tall my grandfather was. He was at least 6 ft 4 ( 1m 95) which was quite tall for a Frenchman in those days. My grandma always called him “mon grand” (my tall one.)



During that time my grandfather was busy with his own career. He was a civil engineer for the French Air Force – working as a civilian. He was also very active in politics, being the director of the city council in his town of Courbevoie, a suburban town near Paris, about 5.1 miles (8.2 kms) from the center of Paris. Below is a photograph of my grandfather with members of his political council.

Grandfather is first on the right, sitting.

Mother wrote her short memoirs long hand and a nurse in the retirement home where she stayed transcribed them into a document. This nurse gave me the document after my mother died in 2002. I was not aware that she had written her memoirs and was very happy and grateful when the nurse gave me an orange folder containing the document.

In my last post I published some of my grandfather’s postcards on the 1910 floods in Paris. A blogger friend remarked that it was strange to publish postcards of a flood. What happened is that the Parisians would write to their families in the provinces and mention the floods. No one could believe that “la ville lumière” (the city of light) could be paralyzed by a flood. An enterprising printer had the idea to take photos of the streets of Paris under water. He then published them as postcards.

Place St Charles in the XV quarter of Paris

It became a very successful business because people jumped on the cards to send to their relatives and to keep as mementos. Even after the water receded postcards were made showing “after the flood” pics and then of people helping to rebuild houses and so forth. The habit of sending postcards had started and continued past 1910. Actually in France you can find current postcards everywhere. In Paris there are shops selling postcards only on all kind of subjects. Everyone sends postcards to family and friends during their vacation or whenever they take a trip. I surely do. Below is a 1910 postcard showing the Alma Bridge with the water almost reaching it.

Pont de l'Alma (Alma Bridge)

Below is a postcard, maybe from the 1920s, showing a panorama of eight bridges in Paris. The Seine had calmed down by then.

Panoramic view of 8 bridges of Paris above the river Seine

In my last post we left as my mother was working for the House of Worth, a high fashion couturier where she started as dressmaker and went up all the way to Première d’Atelier (top person in the high fashion studio.)

The Seamstress by Joseph Rodefer de Camp, American, 1858-1923

She had gone south to the Riviera where she worked in Juan les Pins for six months.



She told me that she learned the Charleston – one of the roaring twenties favorite dances made popular by Josephine Baker.

Mother

Josephine was an American expatriate beloved by the French people – all her life.Click here for more on Josephine Baker.

Poster of Josephine Baker performing at the Folies Bergères, Paris

I had written quite a lot more but I felt this was getting too long. So, I’ll stop here and my next post will be about mother and the tango.