Music on the Streets of Paris

 

1er Nov. 1901

If I haven't written to you earlier,
it is because there's
nothing new and I haven't yet
seen anyone.
A thousand kisses — Paul

 

It's a simple message written in French
on the bottom of a picture postcard.
The caricature shows two scruffy looking street musicians
singing as they accompany themselves on guitar and fiddle.

The postcard was sent
from Belfort, France addressed to
Monsieur Jules Rémond, notaire
at 31 Grande Rue, Besançon, France.

 

 

 

Paul's note is very like the messages still written on millions of postcards today, but in his case he wrote it during the first great age of French cartes postales. The illustration depicts a typical Parisian scene of musical buskers performing outdoors on a public street. Unlike sepia tone photographs from this era, here the publisher is able to add color to the drawing to accentuate the novelty.

The artist was Lubin de Beauvais, (1873–1917), a native of Paris who did many illustrations for French newspapers, children's magazines, and sheet music covers. With his quick pencil he deftly recorded the bohemian life in Paris. He must have produced hundreds of postcard sketches and I have found ten, all sent to the same address during the winter of 1901-02.

 

 

 

The second postcard was posted a few days later on 4 November 1901. Paul writes, "Nothing new, everything is fine. I hope someone will reply to my interesting letter of yesterday."  This card shows a drawing of a trio, a cornetist, trombonist, and a bass drum/cymbal player, with a young boy listening.

 

The next postcard was sent five days later on 9 November 1901. Paul says, "I am swamped with work: circle (?), conference, confessions, sermon, etc. etc. And then I have no good news."  This card shows a man playing a valved trumpet or cornet while a stout woman blows a trombone. Two children look on from the side.

 

 

 

The next card is dated 12 Nov. 1901 and Paul replies to a telegram he received. The sketch shows three performers, at the front a singer wearing a busted top hat dances while a trombonist and a man with either a flute or clarinet play behind him. 

 

 

 

Two weeks pass and Paul sends another card on 26 November 1901. "Don't despair completely of seeing my prose (writing?). Truly, it's been impossible to find a minute. And however (much) I keep my resolutions, it may even be because of that, I will write later this evening." This caricature shows a man with a mandolin or lute-guitar accompanying an old woman who sings as she does a dance step.

 

 

The sixth postcard is dated 6 Xbr 1901, the postmark shows the month is December, not October. The message is the first to connect Paul to the addressee Jules Rémond. He begins, "Dear Parents. Your letter of the day before yesterday killed me. It's lucky that it crossed with another of mine which already replied [ ____ ]. But true, I haven't been able to keep my resolutions any more. I will give you a letter [to the Doctor?]"

The drawing is similar to the last card with another guitarist accompanying a stout woman who is clearly belting out a song in full voice.

 

 

On 15 December 1901 a different writer sends a postcard of Lubin de Beauvais's buskers to the Rémond household in Besançon. It is addressed to Madame Chamecin (?) and I think the writer is Paul's father writing to a housekeeper or governess. "We found snow here, but happily it's not been too cold. We're returning to Besançon at 9 o'clock Monday evening. Kisses to all. [ ?]" 

This card shows a trio of two singers, a man and a woman, who also plays guitar, and another man seated behind them with a small keyboard instrument, probably a portable reed organ with pump pedals. The man reads off a sheaf or papers. Beginning in the 16th century, English minstrels often sold printed lyrics of their ballads which told long stories in musical rhyme. This popular songs were called broadsides or broadsheets and were still common into the early 20th century, so I suspect French buskers did the same. In my collection I have found several French postcards from 1910-1930 with printed songs that include lyrics and musical notation.

 

Besançon is a modest sized city about 230 miles southeast of Paris in eastern France, very near the Swiss border. Belfort, France is a much smaller town, about 55 miles further to the northeast on the way to Mulhouse, France and Bern, Switzerland. Until 1871, it was part of the French département of Haut-Rhin, in Alsace. But during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71 Belfort successfully withstood a siege of 103 days against the Prussian army. At the end of the war in 1871 when the Treaty of Frankfurt was negotiated, Belfort was not annexed by Germany as was the rest of Alsace and Lorraine. Instead it was retained as part of France and called the administrative district Territoire de Belfort. 

 

 

 

At the end of December 1901, Paul sends a greeting in Italian to Mademoiselle Marguerite Rémond. "Happy holidays, my dear. I wish you every happiness for this new year." I believe this card was addressed to his sister.

This drawing has an unusual duo of a young boy on violin and an older man with a large harp. The boy holds his instrument like a cello. Their curly hair suggests that they are Italian, as this combination of instruments appears on numerous Italian picture postcards of folk musicians.   

 

 

A month later on 25 January 1902, Paul writes, "Dear Parents. No News. I wrote to you yesterday after the dining room of D'. I hope that my letter will have given you almost all the information asked for 19 times by Maman [mom]. Kisses to all."

 

This sketch depicts another duo. With arms akimbo, a large imposing woman sings with full throat while a swarthy man saws away on a violin. Though the loud mechanical noises of modern urban life did not exist in 1902, Paris was far from being a quiet city. Its streets must have echoed at all times of the day with the vibrant sounds of human voices calling, shouting, and singing. I imagine some buskers like this pair earned a good living by being paid to go sing somewhere else.

 

The tenth and final card was mailed on 30 January 1902, once again to Paul's parents. He reports no news but I think he sends arrangements to visit Besançon. The card displays another singing duo, this time with a male vocalist wearing a straw boater hat. He sings while holding his music or lyrics with more sheets clasped under his arm.

 

 

 

The ten postcards of Lubin de Beauvais are charming sketches demonstrating the lively musical nature of Paris. Beginning with the Exposition Universelle of 1889 when the Eiffel Tower became Paris's iconic symbol, Paris enjoyed a golden age of architecture, fine art, literature, and music. But not all music was high culture, and these buskers probably did more to define the image of the French people's Joie de vivre — Love of life. And 120 years later, the descendants of these buskers are still serenading the visitors and residents of Paris.

 

 

 

 

 * * *

 

 

 

 Special thanks go to my multi-talented wife, Charlotte,
for providing translations of these postcard messages.
 

 

 

 

Initially I wondered, who was Paul?
A student? A soldier?
A government worker?
Did his short notes leave any clues?

 

It was very helpful that he included a greeting to his parents,
whose home still stands at 31 Grande Rue in Besançon, France.
It's located on a narrow pedestrian-friendly street
where a chic shoe shop occupies the lower floor
of the four story building.

 

 

 

 

31 Grande Rue, Besançon, France

Jules Rémond's occupation of notaire
was the equivalent to a lawyer or solicitor
providing legal work in contracts and property estates.

 So yesterday after I found the street view of his address,
I decided to search for his son, Paul Rémond,
just to see if there was anything else
I might add to my story of these musical postcards.

 

Not only did I find Paul,
but I discovered that he was no ordinary man.

I'm very pleased to introduce Monseigneur Paul Rémond.

 

 

 

Monseigneur Paul Rémond
Source: Les Enfants & Amis Abadi

 

Paul Rémond was born in Salins, France on 24 September 1873, the eldest of a family of seven children. His father, Jules Rémond, born in Clairvaux-les-Lacs in 1841, settling in Besançon in 1880 to work as a notary. His mother, born in Salins in 1828, was a young cousin of Louis Pasteur.

After his secondary studies Paul went to the University of Besançon where he graduated in 1894 with a degree in letters. He spent another year studying in Germany at the University of Freiburg to improve his German. Then at the age of 22 he entered the French seminary in Rome where in 1899 he obtained the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

On 30 July 1899, Paul Rémond was ordained a priest in Besançon and on August 3, he celebrated his first mass in the church of Salins where his parents were married, and where he was baptized. From August 1900 he was vicar of the parish of Saint Christophe in Belfort where he stayed for six years. In 1906, he took up the duties of chaplain of the Lycée Victor Hugo in Besançon where he distinguished himself in social actions with students of all faiths. In 1914 he was named an honorary canon of the cathedral of Besançon.

 

 

 

Paul Rémond (r), 1914-18
Source: Les Enfants & Amis Abadi

 

When France mobilized for war with Germany in August 1914, Paul Rémond took up another calling as a territorial infantry lieutenant with the 7th Army Corps. He saw his first combat in November at the Aisne front. By January 1916 he had been promoted to captain and was commanding a machine gun company at Verdun. From the end of 1916 to November 1918, he took part in the battles of Argonne, Champagne, Verdun (for the second time), Lorraine, and the Somme. For his heroic action in 1916, Rémond was awarded the rank of commander, an army citation of merit, and the Legion of Honor. Sadly the war took his youngest brother, Pierre, who was killed in April 1917 at the age of 25.

 

Following the war Monseigneur Rémond was assigned the post of bishop and chaplain inspector general of the French army occupying Germany's Rhineland. From 1923-24 he represented around forty French parishes, eight German bishoprics, and also had jurisdiction over Syria and Lebanon, then administered by France. In this next portrait of Monseigneur Rémond his military medals are pined to his cassock with the Legion of Honor next to his crucifix.

 

Monseigneur Paul Rémond
Source: Les Enfants & Amis Abadi

 

 

In 1930, following the evacuation of French forces in Germany, Pope Pius XI appointed Monsignor Rémond as the Bishop of Nice. In his first pastoral letter, (Religious Week, 13 July 1930), Rémond wrote, "I come to you ... with the sole desire to raise, to relieve, and to console those who toil and those who suffer, to instruct the ignorant, to defend the oppressed..."

From 1933 to 1939, he took public positions in numerous written interventions and homilies on international issues, both economically and morally, denouncing the desire of men to get rich quickly, their lack of scruples, and the progression of dishonesty and selfishness. But his deepest concern lay with the rise of Nazism. After Hitler came to power in January 1933, Monseigneur Rémond condemned the first anti-Jewish measures. In a sermon delivered on 9 April 1933 in the Church of the Sacred Heart, he denounced "persecutions on grounds of religion" and expressed his "painful sympathy" to the Jewish community, affirming "his desire to soften their sorrows and help them morally and materially". In radio speeches in 1939, Rémond called Germany “the sin of the world” and in 1940, he described Hitler and Stalin as “two gangsters”.

After the fall of France to the German army in June 1940, Monsignor Rémond, like many bishops, initially rallied to the side of Marshall Pétain who became France's prime minister during the time of German occupied France. However he never supported Pétain's collaboration with the Nazis and did not submit to the other leaders of the Vichy government. Strongly opposed to antisemitism in France. In May 1940 Rémond visited the internment camps for foreign Jews and obtained the release of a number of people. In November 1942 he condemned the Italian occupation of Nice, and when Italian troops entered the city in September 1943, he had the French flag raised over his bishopric residence.

During the summer of 1943, Monseigneur Rémond was approached by Moussa Abadi (1910–1997), a Syrian Jew who had taken refuge in Nice and was a member of the French Resistance. He asked Rémond for his help to save Jewish children who were in grave risk of capture and deportation to Nazi concentration camps. Rémond agreed to help, offering to hide the children in safe places at his bishopric residence and at other Catholic institutions in the diocese.  

 

After the German forces entered Nice on 9 September 1943, conditions became very dangerous for Moussa Abadi's secret network. One time the Gestapo arrested two Jewish boys who tried to evade the charge by claiming to be Catholic but they could not provide proof. Warned of the situation by a parish priest, Monsignor Rémond drew up Catholic baptismal and communion certificates for the two boys, along with a letter demanding their release and declaring himself ready, if necessary, to go to Gestapo headquarters in person.

 

With Monseigneur Rémond assistance, Moussa Abadi and Odette Rosenstock (1914–1999), his collaborator and future wife, succeeded in saving 527 Jewish children. For this act of bravery and compassion, on 2 December 1991 Monseigneur Paul Rémond was posthumously honored as one of the Righteous Among the Nations by the Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center.

Monseigneur Paul Rémond remained bishop of Nice until his death on 24 April 1963 at the age of 90.

 

 

Monseigneur Paul Rémond
Righteous Among the Nations
2 December 1991
Source: Les Enfants & Amis Abadi

 

"Nothing new
and I haven't yet
seen anyone."
It's a simple message
from a young priest to his parents.

The future seemed bright, but like it is for all of us, it was unknown to Paul Rémond in the winter of 1901-02. He could not imagine the horrors yet to come in 1914 and 1940. Yet his steadfast faith and strength of character guided him to protect people threatened by a horrible evil.

 

It's not unusual that Paul's postcards were preserved. They are colorful happy images of funny musicians in a past age. So it's not surprising that I found them for sale on the internet and bought the lot, since it's eccentric collectors like myself who search for ephemera like this. What is rare is that hidden in these innocent postcards is an extraordinary personal history about a truly courageous and righteous man.

I don't pretend there is any profound connection between these postcards and Monseigneur Rémond's revered ecclesiastical or distinguished military career. The postcards are more like autographs of famous people,  small tokens of celebrity, little mementos of eminence. It's their tangible quality that makes them relics of a real hero worthy of memory.

 

 

 

 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where Paris is just
as beautiful in June as it is in April.