Three postcards, all showing Cap Ferrat at different times. The first is unused but has a divided back with a warning in French that not all countries accept messages on the back of the card. It may date from about 1905 or after.
The two more recent ones look, at first glance, identical but careful study makes me think the middle one is earlier. The tree on the left looks to be dying and has been replaced in the second. The hedge archway and fir trees, apart from the one that died, look smaller. Not exactly conclusive proof, I know. The second is dated 1979 - I wrote it myself.
The third was written, undated, by a boy to his parents and reminds me a little of "Hello Mother, Hello Father":
Dear parentsAll this in the largest possible, well-spaced, writing!
I hope you are well. We arrived safely. It is hot and the sea is blue. Yesterday we spent the afternoon on the beach and I was in the sea for an hour. I got sunburnt. I can't think of anything else to tell you.
Cap Ferrat is known as the billionaires peninsula because of the many sumptuous villas there. Further development is regulated by the Loi Littoral which both prevents real estate speculation and ensures that the public has free access to coastal paths.
Celebrities who have been associated with Cap Ferrat include Somerset Maugham, Winston Churchill, Isadora Duncan, Charlie Chaplin, and Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft.
Hello Sheila! Thanks for the card, the comments and the concern. Sorry to have been MIA, but I've started a new job and am working full time out of the house right now. I'm hoping this weekend will be the start of more regular posting again, now that I've got the rythym of the job down better. Hope you are well.
ReplyDeleteIt looks beautiful. I suppose it would be nice to be wealthy enough to afford a beach house there!
ReplyDeleteGood to see you around again, Mary. :)
ReplyDeleteCarmen, I think you'd have to be really incredibly wealthy for that.
I think the bottom one is the younger one too because the trees further down the picture are taller and would have been as subject to pruning as the bushes.
ReplyDeleteThis postcard reminds me of a Bond film or Peter Stuyvesant advert - the places where the rich and famous hang out!
A few years ago, while visiting friends in Nice, they brought us to have lunch with a friend in Beaulieu sur Mer, up the hill from Cap Ferrat. Afterwards we walked all the winding way down to where very expensive yachts were moored to have a cup of coffee. I was so amazed that I was sitting by the sea, at a cafe, in Cap Ferrat. Thanks for posting these. The memory of that afternoon is lovely.
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