Mere WEEKS before this card was sent, the Antwerp region was aflutter with the pioneering flight demonstrations of Baron Pierre de Caters, the first Belgian to receive a pilot's license, who was practicing his aerial maneuvers in the nearby fields of Sint-Job-in-'t-Goor, probably wearing a tiny tie.

Receiving a fancy embossed card from Belgium (Seraing) on New Year's Eve was perhaps a highlight of lieutenant wife Lina Kieffer's holiday, connecting her growing Munich suburb of Giesing (Emmeranstraße, Giesing 3/0) to the wider European world. How Cosmopolitan! 🌆

Just look at him!

In the year 1910, announced by this #Prägekarte, the "Captain of #Köpenick" (Der Hauptmann von Köpenick) was keeping the town's tongues aflutter, as in 1906, an impostor named Wilhelm Voigt had famously "arrested" the mayor and stolen the city treasury simply by wearing a captain's uniform!

The sender riffs on the phrase "honeymoon" (lune de miel), writing that the "honey" is full of "assaisonnement mélange de moutarde" (mustard seasoning), suggesting the romance is sweet AND spicy, like the reference to kissing as a "fricassée de museaux" (stew of snouts). So filthy, the Belle époque.

"J'ai du bon tabac..." and j'ai envie de decipher the horror vacui scribblings of a 1908 mad(wo)man from Vélizy to some poor soul in Tincry(?).

#Rouen Cathedral's Butter Tower (15th–16th c.) showcases Flamboyant #Gothic intricacy, funded by indulgences (sinners paying off their sins and believers paying for the right to eat butter during Lent, hence the name of the tower). The #postcard pictured here shows the staircase to the treasury.

This #WW1 #postcard presents #war as manageable, even humorous, eliding its horrors: even at the front, there is no escape from potato peeling duty! How many of these soldiers are hiding #trenchfeet in their boots? As the 🇳🇱 say: "je lacht als een boer met kiespijn!" The mundanity of trauma etc. etc.

The front of this 1914 #postcard is labeled "Hindous fabriquant leur cuisine," showing Indian soldiers in #WW1 preparing a meal (perhaps near Ypres?). The writing concerns a soldier's note to family(?), hoping for war’s end and everyone’s health, and expressing hardship and longing for home.

The 1910 #Brussels Expo fire lead to sensational postcards like this one for Louise Longardy from Etterbeek. This didn't stop #Belgium from making a "Congolese village" (a human zoo leading to 7 deaths) the unholy centerpiece of the 1958 Expo. For temporal perspective: Madonna was birthed in 1958.

"Bégude" refers to a spot where travelers would stop to imbibe. The word comes from the Provençal (Occitan) verb "beguda", meaning simply "to drink." Does anyone recognize the theme of this postcard as common in belle epoque France? #postcard #deltiology #belleepoque