Antique & Vintage Postcards

Sun-drenched and hand-tinted in the saturated palette beloved of postwar French tourism, this ten-photo accordion-fold booklet from Golfe-Juan — the small Côte d'Azur resort wedged between Cannes and Antibes — spills open to show beaches packed with striped umbrellas, the panoramic harbor bristling with sailboat masts, a memorial anchor monument on the quay beside two strolling figures in coral-red trousers, and an aerial view of red-roofed villas cascading toward an improbably blue Mediterranean. Golfe-Juan holds a particular place in French history as the spot where Napoleon landed on 1 March 1815 at the start of the Hundred Days; the harbor anchor monument visible in one view commemorates this dramatic return. Published by CAP (Compagnie des Arts Photomécaniques), Paris's premier mid-century souvenir card house based on the Rue Letellier, the booklet's color process — hand-applied over monochrome photography — gives every image that warm, slightly dreamy glow that defines the chrome era of French riviéra ephemera.