Do you want to bring a piece of Paris history home with you from your once in a lifetime trip? Do you want to do it for less than $5? Do you want to create a stunning art piece to hang in your home and remind you of your trip forever? You have to buy some antique Paris postcards!
Before my trip, I had no concept of antique postcards, or how special or beautiful they can be. As it turns out, old paper goods that were not really meant to stand up to the test of time are called ephemera, which is what these postcards are. Many have lasted through the years, though, and you can find lots of gorgeous postcards from all different eras with only a tiny but of hunting.
I found all of my postcards at the Bouquinistes, which are stalls lining the banks of the Seine river near the Notre Dame that sell everything from antique books, to vintage prints, to reagular tourist knick-knacks and of course, antique postcards! You'll find some that have been sent, and some that haven't. I personally loved the ones that were sent because of the cute little postage stamps and the absolutely stunning penmanship that many of them carried. People from the past had some gorgeous scrip handwriting, and the fact that the messages are all written in French just adds to the charm!
I loved inspecting the postcards for images of landmarks I had visited. Many look relatively unchanged, except for the horse and buggies and women in great big hoop skirts and men in tophats you can see in the images on the postcards! You can find color as well as black and white. I decided to collect exclusively black and white photos because I had already planned to display them when I got home and thought all black and white would create a more classic, cohesive look.
Once home I turned my postcards into an art piece with
this multi-opening frame from Pottery Barn (in black) and have been proudly displaying my collection ever since. The postcards fit into the 4x6 openings in the frame. I printed a few of my own photographs from the trip in black and white to fill the three larger openings in the middle of the frame.
I love my little collection and display of antique postcards so much that I've already started working on one for another of my favorite cities, New York! To me, an affordable piece of history and art that makes for unique and gorgeous home decor is a real win in my book, so much I want to do it twice!
I hope you've enjoyed this post, and it's given you some inspiration of your own for hunting down treasures in Paris! Don't forget to follow me on
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With Love, Katie
