Christmas Cards

Since I was a wee girl I have been collecting postcards. It started with the collection of vintage postcards given to me by my grandfather. I have many vintage cards but also new postcards. I like to send postcards – and receive them of course. In this country people do not send as many postcards to their friends while on vacation as is done in Europe. But they do send many Christmas (post)cards.



In France not many Christmas cards are sent (at least when I lived there) because, unless one is a practicing Christian, Noel (Christmas) is considered more as a children’s holiday – for Santa, or as a family celebration. Close family members and close friends may exchange one or two gifts.



Most French people send Happy New Year cards during the whole month of January. New Year celebrations are also more popular than Christmas, at least in Paris. There are always elaborate parties with family, friends or at restaurants and clubs to celebrate New Year’s Eve, which is called “Le Réveillon” and also “La Saint Sylvestre." Champagne flows freely – oysters on the half shell and foie gras are consumed with pleasure. At midnight everyone kisses under the mistletoe. On New Year’s Day (Le Jour de l’An) family and friends get together for another big meal and exchange presents.



Armenian families, just like Russian and Greek families celebrate Christmas on January 7th, according to the Julian calendar followed by the Armenian/Russian/Greek and other Orthodox churches. The Julian calendar is 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar adopted by most countries, the United States included.

Card From The Four Gospels, Armenian early 17th century

Nowadays, since we are retired and our family is not large, we do not receive many Christmas cards – maybe 8 or 10 at most. But this week I posted 50 cards in the mail. I sent some to old friends and some family – who rarely answer - but then again to perfect strangers. If you have read the short story by Truman Capote “A Christmas Memory” you will recall that his cousin and he would bake 30 fruitcakes. Who were these cakes for? Here, quoting from the story: “…the larger share is intended for persons we’ve met maybe once, perhaps not at all.” As you can see in the following paragraph, I, just like Truman Capote and his cousin, have found a way to send good cheer to persons I have not met.



I enjoy cards so much that I think other people must be pleased to receive them, too. Many people are lonely and fighting some depression at this time of year. Living in Georgia I am fortunate that the Ga. Department of Agriculture sends a free monthly news bulletin called the “Farmers and Consumers Market Bulletin.”

In their first issued every December they list the names and addresses of “Special People.” These are people, especially the elderly and shut-ins, who often find themselves without loved one to share holidays. The Bulletin writes that although their circumstances may vary they would all like to receive cards from readers. Then they list about 200 names and addresses throughout Georgia. I pick about 35 names, usually from tiny towns and send them a pretty Christmas card with a hand-written greeting. I used to send more than 50 cards but with the increase in the price of stamps I have had to streamline. I have been sending cards like this for years – am not sure when I became aware of the Special People list, but maybe 15+ years ago. It is a ritual at Christmas time and I anxiously wait for the list.

Below are two of the cards I sent this year to family, friends and the Special People. I would like to send a card to each of you, but since I do not have your address, this will be a virtual Christmas card of good cheer.

A traditional Christmas card -


or a more modern style one -

Inside it says: "perfect love, perfect peace, perfect joy to you"

The Eiffel Tower in Paris is 120 years old this year. Last month when we were there around 8:00 pm at night the Eiffel Tower lit up and sparkled like a Christmas tree then there was a light show with vibrating colors surrounding it. This show is to celebrate the Tower’s birthday and is taking place from October until the end of December. It was a fascinating display that I wish you could all see so I found the link to it and if you click on the picture below you should see it. This is the first time I attach a video link so I hope it will work. Enjoy -

La Tour Eiffel fait la fête tous les soirs
Uploaded by mairiedeparis. - Up-to-the minute news videos.

So A Merry Christmas to all my blogging friends who come from many parts of the world – I hope I won’t make a mistake when I say some of your greetings:

Joyeux Noel (French)
Shenoraavor Nor Dari yev Pari Gaghand (Armenian)
Puthuvalsara Aashamsakal (Malayalam)
Buon Natale (Italian)
Fröhliche Weihnachten (German)
Feliz Navidad (Spanish)
God Jul (Norwegian)
Zalig Kerstfeest (Dutch)
Milad Majid (Arabic)
Glædelig Jul (Danish)
Nadolig Llawen (Welsh)
Srozhdestovm Kristovim (Russian)
Feliz Natal (Polish)
Bada Din Mubarak Ho (Hindi)
Vesele Vianoce (Slovak)
Selamat Hari Krismas (Malay)
Maligayang Pasko (Philippines)
Craciun fericit si un An Nou fericit! (Romanian)
Noeliniz Ve Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun (Turkish)
Kellemes Karácsonyi ünnepeket és Boldog Új Évet! (Hungarian)
Hyvää Joulua or Hauskaa Joulua (Finnish)
Hristos se rodi (Serbian)
Geseende Kersfees (Afrikaan)

To those friends who do not celebrate Christmas, I wish you happy New Year festivities.

Wishing for snow

The picture above is not what we would see walking outside today (no snow yet) and it is 60 degrees F (15.5 C.) This was a picture I took one day last year in January. We were so surprised to see snow covering our garden that morning. I hurried outside and took some pictures because it was not very cold and it would soon melt.

Also last January I took the following series of snow pictures - this was our back yard then; you can even get a glimpse of our neighbors’ lake in the background -

Click on image to enlarge it.

and part of our barn



one of the bird feeders


looking toward the front of the house


and the side of the house



then we took our cat Cody so he could smell the snow – he was terrified.



A few hours later the sun was peeking out and the snow was already melting. So sad – in the Deep South snow is not a frequent visitor.



Growing up I do not remember this much snow in Paris either – there would be some snow for a couple of days, but it would not last too long. I do not have pictures from that time but found the one below (free photo courtesy of Life.)



My mother’s friend, who was a furrier, gave her some rabbit fur remnants. So mum made me a fur cape, a fur hat and a fur “manchon” for my hands. I don’t know what you call this in English but you can see what it looks like in the painting below. It is called “Dame au Manchon” and was painted in 1880 by Berthe Morisot, French painter (1841-1895.) I loved my cape and was always wishing for snow, or at least some cold weather, so I could wear it.



Mother made another cape, years later, for my daughter. Here is a picture of Céline in her white fur cape.



When I moved to San Francisco, there was not much snow in winter either. My boyfriend lived in Montana and his family invited me there for my first Christmas in the USA. When the plane approached Great Falls it circled above the city but everything looked white from the sky. When the aircraft started the descent we could then see the great city trees covered with snow and decorated with vibrant lights. This was fairyland to me.



But that was many winters ago. Now in Georgia – I am wishing for snow – one or two days would be good so we can go out – listen to all the muffled sounds and look at everything turned clean and white.

Trees in a Winter Landscape, Aleksander A. Borisov (1815-1892)

Here is a stanza from the poem “Winter’s Spring”

I love the snow, the crumpling snow

That hangs on everything,
It covers everything below
Like white dove's brooding wing,
A landscape to the aching sight,
A vast expanse of dazzling light.
- John Clare, English Poet (1793-1864)

La Charrette, route sous la neige à Honfleur - 1867, Claude Monet

And for my French speaking blogging friends, here is the last stanza from the poem “La Neige”

Qu'il est doux, qu'il est doux d'écouter des histoires,

Des histoires du temps passé,
Quand les branches d'arbres sont noires,
Quand la neige est épaisse et charge un sol glacé !
- Alfred de Vigny (1797-1863)

And for my Jewish blogging friends I’d like to wish them a Happy Chanukah.

Return to Vaux le Vicomte

When I was a child my parents drove often to a small town south of Paris to visit my cousins. It is about 17 miles from the outskirts of Paris but really about 40 miles (65 kms) from the center of Paris where we lived. Even though it is close to the capital it is amidst sugar beets and wheat fields and feels like one must be miles away. It was great fun for me to play with my cousin who lived with her grandparents (my grandmother and her grandfather were brothers and sisters. ) When we were about 16 years old her grandparents bought her a “velo Solex” which is a bicycle with a small motor on the front wheel. This is what I found on their UK site: “The Solex is a powered bycicle, not a moped. It was invented in 1946 in France, as a low cost, reliable transport for a decimated country. It is a classic design which, since its invention has sold over 8 million, mainly in Europe and Scandinavia. They have a tremendous reputation for being fun, reliable and economic. “ Below is a picture of a man riding a velo Solex in Paris, circa the mid 50s by the looks of the cars.



The priest where my cousin lived was upgrading from a velo Solex to a Mobylette to visit his flock. My father bought his Solex for me so I could ride with my cousin whenever I visited her. We had so much fun on our Solex which got about 100 miles to the gallon – we would often ride to Maincy where the castle of Vaux le Vicomte is located. Maincy is a little town about 6.5 miles away (11 kms) which we would reach by riding over a long road bordered with tall Plane trees. In those days the interior of the castle could not be visited but the alleys and the woods around it could.

Picture of some of the road and gardens below -


We rode there many times but I never took any picture of the castle. The castle was so familiar to us but we never knew its history – we just knew that it was owned by a sugar magnate. My cousin married at 18 years of age and a few years later I left for my visit to the United States. Our velo Solex were sold.


Below is the castle of Vaux le Vicomte and its gardens viewed from the sky (courtesy of the castle.)

Click on the picture to enlarge it

When my mother moved into a nursing home in the early 2000s, she selected one close to my cousin’s new hometown (close to the town where my cousin grew up.) When I visited my mum my cousin drove me around and we went to the castle of Vaux le Vicomte of course. That week was called “Journée du Patrimoine” and entrance to the castle was free. France’s national heritage week occurs usually the 3rd week of September and millions of visitors are allowed free access in local heritage sites, like castles, etc. This is when, after so many years, I was able to visit the interior of the castle, learn its history, take pictures and buy some postcards. This year again, when we went to France at the end of last October, we stayed with my cousin and we went to Vaux le Vicomte so my husband could visit it too, but unfortunately it was a Wednesday when the castle is closed to visitors.

Here is the picture of what we found – the gates closed.


The history of the castle and its owners is a long one, but I’ll try to be short (if I can…) The construction of the castle began in 1658 and ended in 1661. It is the most elaborate house built in the mid 17th century in France. It was built for Nicolas Fouquet (1615-1680) who was Louis XIV’s Minister of Finance. Fouquet came from a rich family, had a keen intelligence, loved the arts, letters, pictures, tapestries, flowers and was a patron of many artists, poets, authors, etc. Among them were La Fontaine and Molière. Fouquet invested his immense fortune in the building of this palatial castle. He selected 3 great artists: architect Louis Le Vau, painter Charles Le Brun and landscape gardener André Le Notre. Le Notre cleared 100+ acres from the wild woods of the estate to create an innovative garden with a sweeping view of more than a mile long (3 kms.) He used a geometric plan containing vast vistas, fountains, statues, orderly boxes of shrubberies, lawns and fountains. This was the birth of the elegant French landscape gardening style which would become the “jardin à la française” used in many European castles, grand houses and other elegant estates around the world. The Swan House in Atlanta has a garden à la française.

Postcards and photos provided by the castle and friends of the castle

Painter Charles Le Brun decorated the castle in a lavish and dazzling style. The interior rooms were furnished with elegant furniture, paintings, tapestries and statues. Later on he was to be employed by the King of France and was the originator of the Louis XIV style.

Postcards and photos provided by the castle and friends of the castle

Unfortunately Nicolas Fouquet was not to live in his beautiful castle for long. He was extremely successful with a brilliant mind and a generous spirit. He was very ambitious and loved refinement and luxury. This created extreme jealousy among the advisors of King Louis XIV (1638-1715) who plotted against Fouquet hoping to bring his downfall. King Louis was only 23 at the time and easily influenced. He was persuaded that Fouquet was embezzling funds from the royal coffers (which was not true) and decided to imprison him. First, though, he accepted an invitation to visit Fouquet’s castle at Vaux le Vicomte. Fouquet organized an extremely elaborate and magnificent party in honor of the king on 17 August 1661. All the guests praised Fouquet for the beauty of his castle, the décor, the music and they applauded greatly the final fireworks. This displeased King Louis, the “Sun King”, greatly because he felt “upstaged.” On 10 September 1661, 3 weeks after the party, the captain of the King’s Musketeers, d’Artagnan, arrested Fouquet on the orders of Louis XIV.

The “Mousquetaires” (Musketeers) were a French infantry type soldiers equipped with a musket. They were popularized in the Alexandre Dumas’ book “The Three Musketeers.”

Pictures of the corps of Musketeers (from re-enactment at the castle)

Nicolas Fouquet was sentenced by Louis XIV to life-imprisonment in a small fortified prison where he died in 1680. His wife was exiled and Louis XIV was then able to seize, confiscate and even purchase 120 tapestries, the statues, and many other things from the castle. The Sun King then hired Fouquet’s trio of artists Le Vau, Le Brun and Le Notre to come to Versailles and built a palace which would be even grander than Vaux le Vicomte. Versailles palace became one of the largest in Europe. On the postcards of Vaux le Vicomte is printed: “Le Chateau qui inspira Versailles” (the castle which inspired Versailles.)

Below is a portrait of Louis XIV painted by Charles Le Brun in 1666, the castle of Vaux le Vicomte on top and the Palace of Versailles in the bottom.


Mrs. Fouquet was exiled but recovered Vaux le Vicomte 10 years later. She sold it in 1705 to some noble family who kept it until it became run down. Mr. Alfred Sommier, a sugar magnate, was the winning bidder when the castle was sold at public auction in 1875. By 1908 he had it totally restored. The castle is now owned by his direct descendants, the glamorous Count and Countess de Vogüé, who continue the work to preserve Vaux le Vicomte. It is the most important private property listed on the Historical Monument List of France. When we stopped by last month you could see that the right side of the building was being restored. I took the pictures below.

Click on any picture to enlarge it

The estate is opened from March to November. Electric club cars can be rented to further explore the garden. Special events take place as, for instance, the “Day of the Great Century” where visitors can come wearing costumes from the 17th Century, as in the pictures below.


The castle of Vaux le Vicomte is available for hire by private parties like corporations or celebrities. Non famous people (as my cousin’s nephew) can have their wedding pictures taken there. Well-known people like French basketball player Tony Parker had his wedding ceremony there in July 2007. He married a Mexican-American fashion model named Eva Longoria, who I believe also does some acting on soap operas in the US. (their photo courtesy of French newspaper Le Figaro.)


Vaux le Vicomte celebrates Christmas and is opened on three week-ends during the Holiday Season. The interior and the garden are decorated and illuminated.


Then it is closed during the winter months and can be observed through the gate only.


Many years ago, when my cousin and I rode to Vaux le Vicomte on our Solex bikes, we rarely saw anyone there. We would not have imagined that years in the future the castle would be open to visitors and we would come back and discover its interior – its exterior is part of our childhood. It will always stay in our memory like a cherished sepia photograph.

Historical Armistice Day - 11 November in Paris

This post will be about the end of our latest trip to Europe. Since we were flying back home on 12 November, our last two days were spent in Paris. We did not remember that Wednesday 11 November was Armistice Day and a national holiday in France. The night before as we were returning to our hotel we wondered why all the parked cars had been removed from the streets but soon realized it was to make room for cars of the officials attending the ceremony. Next morning from our window we saw a row of cars parked below and could hear music coming from the Arc de Triomphe area.



We walked up the 2 blocks to the Place Charles de Gaulle where the Arc de Triomphe stands at the top of the Avenue des Champs Elysées in central Paris. It was erected in 1835 to honor the army of Napoleon. It was a cool, grey morning but quite a large crowd was already assembled. A huge screen near the Arc had been erected and I was able to take photographs of the screen for close ups of the ceremony.

Click on pictures to enlarge them

The Great War, also called World War I and The War to End All Wars ended with the armistice on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, i.e. November 11 at 11:00 AM. Armistice Day (a French word from New Latin armistitium, from Latin arma + -stitium meaning suspension of hostilities by agreement between the opponents) also known as Remembrance Day has been observed on 11 November in many countries since. Here, in the United States, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first Armistice Day on 11 November 1919. It was observed here until President Dwight Eisenhower signed a law changing its name to Veterans Day to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all veterans. The reason this Armistice Day was an historical event in France was because Angela Merkel was the first German Chancellor to attend this commemoration in France which marks the moment the guns went down on the Western Front. While the national anthems of the two former enemies were being sung by the choir of the French Army Chancellor Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy laid a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe . They rekindled its flame and signed the commemoration book.

Pictures are not clear because taken at a distance from the large screen

Then the two leaders went to a small lectern where each gave a short speech. French President Sarkozy said: “…en ce 11 novembre nous ne commémorons pas la victoire d’un peuple contre un autre mais une épreuve qui fut aussi terrible pour l’un comme pour l’autre. Je veux dire que les orphelins allemands ont pleuré leurs pères morts au combat de la même manière que les orphelins français.” (…this 11 November, we aren’t commemorating the victory of one people over another, but an ordeal as terrible for the one as for the other. I mean that German orphans cried over the deaths of their fathers in combat just as French orphans did.)

he also said “…Cela fait presque un demi-siècle qu’ensemble nous construisons l’avenir, chacun d’entre nous aimant son pays d’un amour sincère et profond mais refusant désormais de confondre l’amour de son pays avec la haine de l’autre.” (For nearly half a century we have together been building the future, each of us sincerely and deeply loving our country, but now refusing to confuse love of our country with hatred of the other’s.)

Chancellor Merkel said: "Both dates, the end of the First World War, and the day of the fall of the Berlin Wall, remind us that we must always fight for the invaluable goods of peace and freedom, that we need to defend our values, of democracy and human rights, and that we keep working for European solidarity and partnership with America. That is our task."

she also said: “The Germans and the French, once bitter enemies, now stand united as neighbors in a way that nourishes hope and confidence that elsewhere in the world, too, deep trenches can be bridged and overcome” “I know that what has gone before cannot be erased, but there is a power, a power which helps us and which can help us bear what has passed: reconciliation.”

Then while the choir sang Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony the two leaders came close to the barriers to shake hands with the crowd. They came near us but in trying to move closer we forgot to take pictures! Then they joined their spouses and drove back down the Avenue des Champs Elysées.



I arrived home in Georgia with a bad cold which turned into an infection. My stay in bed allowed me to go through several library books on the Great War, such as The Great War Illustrated by Winter and Bagget, The First World War by Jack Keegan, The First World War a Complete History by Martin Gilbert and I also purchased the newer paperback A World Undone by G.J.Meyer which I am still reading (752 pages.) I’ll mention some facts that I gathered there for the benefit of my younger blogging friends who may not have studied this war too closely. I’ll also scan several vintage postcards from the 3 dozen postcards on this subject in my card collection.



On 28 July 1914 Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Then from 1914 until 1917 major powers entered the war. France entered the war and subsequently was joined by 600,000 troops from Algeria, Morocco, Senegal and Vietnam (then called Indochina.)

Below is a postcard of the French infantry corps called French Zouave from French North Africa


Britain fought alongside its troops from the British Commonwealth such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Newfoundland and its Colonial Empire such as troops from India and other colonies. China, Japan, Russia were fighting with the Allies against Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire. More countries joined the conflict – about 32.

Postcard below shows Britain Sir Douglas Haig introducing Sir Pertab Singh of India to Gen Joffre of France.

Click on postcards to enlarge them

The war brought an enormous amount of casualties. In October 1914 the Ottoman Empire of Turkey entered the war on the German side. Turkish men, representing the future of Turkey, fought at Gallipoli with great courage. In Turkey though corrupt and incompetent soldiers and irregulars of the army of the Ottoman Empire used the war as an excuse to massacre the Christian Armenians and Greeks within the empire resulting in more than two million innocent dead or enslaved. Terrible battles were fought – The Great War Illustrated book says: “What Gettysburg is to America, Verdun is to France and the Somme is to Britain. These legendary battlefields are still today sacred ground.” (page 156.) The Battle of the Somme lasted 5 months - from July to November 1916 – it produced no strategic gain but over 1 million casualties. The Battle of Verdun in north-eastern France was gruesome and a carnage. It was the longest battle of the war lasting 10 months (Feb to Dec 1916.) The German artillery fired over 21 million rounds and the French artillery 23.5 million. The French won but sustained more casualties (372,000) than the Germans (337,000.) Like the Battle of the Somme it produced no strategic gain but “Above all it normalized collective violence, the signature of our century [20th century.] – The Great War Illustrated, pg 361.


US President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) had vowed to keep America out of the war and had been re-elected because of that pledge. But after Germany sank three American ships in March 1917 the United States declared war on Germany on 6 April 1917. Many Americans were eager to serve and the first troops arrived in France in June 1917. By March 1918 General John J. Pershing had 500,000 troops under his command and he told French General Ferdinand Foch: “We are ready and anxious for a chance to do our part in the fight.” The Germans were very surprised when the fresh American replaced the exhausted French. Violent American attacks stunned the Germans and by November 1918 the Kaiser’s armies had been crushed and were retreating toward their German homeland. Turkey surrendered on 30 October 1918 and Austria-Hungary on 3rd November. At 5:30 am on November 11, 1918 Germany signed an armistice document. The fighting was ordered to end at 11:00 A.M. on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.

Click on postcards to enlarge them

Below on the left, is a postcard of Marshal Foch which says: to the American Forces: “Your high spirit, your faith, made decisive victory sure for us.”


The destructiveness of the First World War (WWI) exceeded that of all other wars known to history. In four years the number of military and civilian casualties came to more than 40 millions: 20 millions dead and 21 millions injured. This number includes 9.7 million military deaths and 10 million civilian deaths. As point of reference, in four years the American Civil War had 600,000+ killed. As another point of reference: since June 2003 and up till 20 September 2009 there has been 4345 troops killed in the Iraq war – during World War I over 7500 troops were killed each week. The scale of destruction of WWI was enormous – whole generations were wiped out. Every town in France has a WWI monument with many names inscribed on it. Most French families have a member of their family who died or was severely injured in this war (mine included) and I suspect that it is the same in Germany. Whatever was achieved was not worth the human blood it spilled. People now are interested in World War II but, in truth, WWII had its foundation and roots in WWI.

So to see the leaders of France and Germany standing side by side by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe, on this formal ceremony of remembrance, while both country flags were fluttering in the wind and their anthems were being sung, was a poignant and powerful gesture of reconciliation.


This was indeed an historical Armistice Day celebration and we are glad that we could attend it.

“Calm fell. From heaven distilled a clemency;
There was peace on earth, and silence in the sky….”
- Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)