If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 700

 

 

 

 

 

 Tours, France, ca 1914-1924

 

The perforation on the left side of the card indicates that this card was one in a booklet set.  It is an unused Vintage souvenir postcard.  Featured are four black & white photo views of the city of Tours with a young woman or girl wearing a traditional headdress in the center.  At the bottom margin on the front of the card is the number 48, the title Tours, and A.P.  The has card has a divided back with the typical greenish color that can be found on many European vintage cards.  A. Thiriat & Cie of Toulouse is identified as the printer or publisher on the reverse center line.  The card was found in a shoebox jumble and was purchased at a local antique mall. 

 

Thiriat & Company of Toulouse was known to issue cards with pictures of places, also military scenes, and people in uniform.  The pictures with people in uniform suggest they were from the World War I era, 1914-1918.  It is not known if Thiriat published or just printed the cards. 

 

The city of Tours is located in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France.  Situated between Orleans and the Atlantic coast it was originally founded and named Caesarodunum [“hill of Caesar”] in the 1^st century A.D. by the Roman Emperor Augustus.  During Gallic times it was an important point of crossing over the Loire River.  By the 4^th century A.D. the name was Turones, later Civitas Turonum, and finally Tours.  The Tours Amphitheatre, one of the largest Roman amphitheaters, can be found there.  Tours folk lore says that Turonus, the nephew of Brutus, died and is buried in Tours and the city was founded around his grave. 

 

Tours is famous for its bridges crossing the Loire.  There are two pictures of bridges on the card, one at the upper left and the other at the lower right corners.  The photos appear to be of the Wilson Bridge taken from opposite sides of the river.  This bridge is named afater the U.S. President, Woodrow Wilson.  Also pictured on the card, at the upper right is the Hôtel de Ville, and at the lower left, the Tours Cathedral, Saint Gatianus. 

 

For additional information, see:

 

https://rthcards.co.uk/pclogos/data/THIRIAT/THIRIAT_01.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%B4tel_de_Ville,_Tours

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pont_Wilson_(Tours)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tours