French cards

One post, three cards to finish todays updates. These great french cards were sent by Miguel, Joaninha and Emerich.

 © Editions Combier - Macon * Photo by Olivier Anger

 The 1st time i've visited Switzerland i traveled by bus and one of the stops was a gas station in Annecy, a city in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. I remember this because i saw cards there but couldn't buy any as i didn't have my wallet with me at the moment. Eight years later i finally got a card from there.

This card sent by Miguel shows the castle, built between the 12th and 16th centuries. It served as the residence of the Counts of Geneva and the Dukes of Genevois-Nemours. Several times the victim of fires, the castle was abandoned in the 17th century and later repaired to serve as a barracks until 1947. The town of Annecy acquired the castle in 1953, restored it with the help of Monuments historiques and installed a museum there. - in: wikipedia

 Before getting this card sent by Joaninha, i had two cards from Marseille, which i bought in a... gas station!! I've learnt my lesson in Annecy.

Marseille is the second largest city in France, after Paris and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Located on the southeast coast of France, Marseille is the capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region.

On the card there's the Notre-Dame de la Garde, a Neo-Byzantine basilica situated at the highest natural point in Marseille, a 162 m (532 ft) limestone outcrop on the south side of the Old Port. It was built between 1853-1864.

The basilica was built on the foundations of a 16th-century fort constructed by Francis I of France to resist the 1536 siege of the city by the Emperor Charles V. The basilica is made up of two parts: a lower church, or crypt, dug out of the rock and in the Romanesque style, and an upper church of Neo-Byzantine style decorated with mosaics. A square bell tower of 41m (135 feet) is surmounted by a belfry of 12.5m (42 feet), which itself supports a monumental, 11.2m (27 feet) tall statue of the Madonna and Child made of copper gilded with gold leaf. - in: wikipedia

Editions A. Leconte

This is a really nice view of Paris.

The Île de la Cité is one of two remaining natural islands in the Seine within the city of Paris. It is the centre of Paris and the location where the medieval city was refounded.

The western end has held a palace since Merovingian times, and its eastern end since the same period has been consecrated to religion, especially after the 10th century construction of a cathedral preceding today's Notre Dame. The land between the two was, until the 1850s, largely residential and commercial, but since has been filled by the city's Prefecture de Police, Palais de Justice, Hôtel-Dieu hospital and Tribunal de Commerce. Only the westernmost and northeastern extremities of the island remain residential today, and the latter preserves some vestiges of its 16th century canon's houses. - in: wikipedia