Last year the blog ran a number of pictures that merged old photos with pictures taken from the same spot today, using the expert Photoshop know-how of friend Anthony Poulachon. This time though I have taken a literally hands-on approach to combining old and new, by manually overlaying old postcards onto the modern-day view, i.e. simply holding them in front of the camera lens. This technique has been used masterfully by photographers such as Julien Knez whose pictures incorporating wartime Paris are particularly effective. The following selection is nowhere near as spectacular, but I hope you'll enjoy the views!
We start off in Arcachon and this picture showing well-dressed people enjoying a stroll on "la jetée promenade", now known in its modern-day incarnation as Jetée Thiers.
Into Bordeaux and its famous shopping street Rue Sainte-Catherine, as viewed from Place Saint-Projet around 1911 (and 2015).
This next postcard dates from the same period and was taken from more or less the same spot, but this time we're looking back around towards Place Saint-Projet.
Further up Rue Sainte-Catherine, here is the point where the street intersects with Rue Porte-Dijeaux. The building on the left is now one of the city’s many McDonald’s fast food outlets, while on the right is the façade of the Dames de France department store, which became Galeries Lafayette in the 1980s.
Up and across to Rue Fondaudège, and this 1920s shot which shows the pleasant Place Fondaudège and a first-generation tram (advertising "Vinaigre Tête Noire").
Staying in the same neighbourhood, further along the same tram line, this shot shows Église Saint Ferdinand as it looked in the early years of the 20th century. In the absence of trams, the road is the territory of horse-drawn carriages.
Our Bordeaux visit finishes up with Gare Saint-Jean (referred to on the postcard as "Gare du Midi"), as it looked in 1910. Note the elegant carriages. Other than being obscured by the bridge used by modern-day trams, the view hasn't actually changed that much.
All of which is an excuse to hop on a train back to Arcachon and revive the central post office as it looked in the 1950s!
