Panorama de Paris - Vue des Ponts vers la Cite.

The card was mailed on June 11, 1906, from Paris to a Miss Ruth S, whom the sender thought was living in Evanston, Illinois. The card was forwarded in the United States with a June 23, 1906, Chicago postmark and a June 24, 1906, Holland, Michigan, postmark. Eighty-nine years later it still takes two weeks to get a postcard from Paris to Chicago.

The Panorama of Paris hasn't changed in 89 years either. In the background behind the Ile St. Louis with its 17th century houses is the Ile de Cite and the twin towers of Notre Dame, a Paris landmark since the 13th century. Construction began in 1163 when Louis VII was king. Looking this way the Right Bank of the Seine is on the right. A horse-driven omnibus is on the bridge in the foreground headed toward the Left Bank and Gare d'Austerlitz. The Sacre-Coeur Basilica on Monmarte rises above the city on the far right. The church of the Sacred Heart was not completed until 1910 -- although the funds to build it were collected soon after the end of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.

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Updated 05/95