Sepia Saturday 78 Uncle Carl"s Paris 1945?

He wrote, "Eiffel Tour Paris"

Alan  is aboard in New York and hopefully enjoying all things the city offers.  He mentioned buildings as the prompt for this week.  I am engaged with much business of my uncle's estate but finally able to do some sharing here on our Sepia community.  As I have shared before, Uncle Carl was with the US Army 809th Tank Destroyer Unit in World War II and all over Europe, even serving time with General Patton.  At one point they were in Paris.   I have scanned a few of the photos he sent home to his mother and sisters, small black and whites still like new all these many many years later.

The year is not identified but based on the  photos in the album from Germany I suspect this was about 1945, perhaps after the war ended.  If you enlarge these photos you can see the old cars.  I like the fountains here in front of the Eiffel Tower.

Along with photos he sent his sisters silk handkerchiefs.  I have the white and blue ones that he'd given to my Mom and to my aunt.  I have scanned only the blue silk one.  Both are under glass on an antique dresser in a bedroom here.

Never having been to Paris I am not sure of this next photo however he did write de la Concorde on the back.  This one shows the Eiffel Tower far off to the right in the distance.  Enlarging the photo makes the old cars visible, which makes me think that this is  after the war. 


He wrote "Palace de la Concorde"

The blue silk handkerchief.  To my sister

 Notice the flags on the corner of the handkerchief.  This is a bit faded but at 66 years it is entitled to have some wrinkles and fade spots.  I have not attempted to do any restoration or cleaning to this because I do not want to destroy it.  It appears to be painted on silk. I wonder if Uncle Carl might not have done this himself because he was an artist in his own right.

Wherever he went he never forgot home and his family. As busy as he was he always took time to remember. Whatever he saw, and I know there were horrors of war, he never wanted to return. Years later his wife would travel to Europe but he always said he had seen enough to last a lifetime.

All the photos are small, about 2inches  by 3 inches,  black and whites and I wonder if they might have been some type of postcard, but there appears to be no way to determine that.  All are stamped, "approved by Censor" on the back side.  Other than Uncle Carl's writing that is all I know about them.  Although the landmarks still exist today, I expect the surrounding areas have had significant changes.  This last one that I scanned for this week is my favorite, showing the river and the bridge. On the back of it, Uncle Carl wrote, "La Cite, Paris"   

Paris about 1945?

This is my return to the Sepia Saturday community after so many weeks away.  As usual click on the title to this post to go to the Sepia site from where you can see what others have shared this week.