Antique & Vintage Postcards

Photographic postcard of the medieval arcades at Place St-Louis in Metz, France — a man in a flat cap, pipe in hand, leans against the low wall beneath the pointed Gothic arches as vintage cars pass beyond, the painted lettering "Maison Sibille" stretching across the vaulted ceiling overhead. Built by Lombard bankers in the 13th-16th centuries, the Place St-Louis arcades are among the best-preserved medieval commercial structures in Lorraine. The reverse carries a wartime "Visa" censorship number — a reminder that even ordinary street-scene postcards required official clearance for printing during the early 1940s, when Metz and the rest of Lorraine were under direct German administration.