The Eiffel Tower and the Trocadero.
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These postcards of France in the last years of the 19th century were created using the Photochrom process, a technique by which black-and-white photos were imbued with vibrant and lifelike color.
Invented in the 1880s by a Swiss printer, the Photochrom process began with coating a tablet of lithographic limestone with a light-sensitive emulsion and exposing it to sunlight under a photo negative for several hours.
The emulsion would then harden in proportion to the tones of the negative, resulting in a fixed lithographic image on the tablet.
Further litho stones would then be prepared for each tint to be used in the final color postcard — a single image could require well over a dozen different stones.
Though a time-consuming and delicate endeavor, the Photochrom process resulted in color images with a rare degree of verisimilitude, especially at a time when true color photography was still in its infancy.
East coast at high tide, Mont St. Michel.
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Notre Dame de Bon Secours and Joan of Arc’s monument, Rouen.
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Entrance to harbor, St. Malo.
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Thiers.
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Capitol Place, Toulouse.
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Tréport.
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Trouville beach.
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Promenade and Grand Salon, Trouville.
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Trouville beach.
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Cable railway, Marseilles.
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Palace of the Grand Trianon, Versailles.
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The Latone Basin, Versailles.
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Grand Trianon, chamber of Empress Josephine, Versailles.
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Grand Trianon, chamber of Queen Victoria, Versailles.
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Gallery of Mirrors, Versailles.
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Cauterets, Pyrenees.
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The Hôpital Spring, Vichy.
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The Malavaux near Vichy.
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The Port Militaire and swing bridge, Brest.
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Caen.
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The valley of Chamonix from the Aiguille du Floria.
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Chartres.
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Dinan.
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Dunkirk.
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The throne room, Fontainebleau Palace.
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Rue de la Republic, Lyon.
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Arena, Nîmes.
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Grand Street, St. Malo.
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Chateau de Duingt, Annecy.
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The Pantheon and the Rue Soufflot, Paris.
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A gallery in the Louvre, Paris.
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Notre Dame, Paris.
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Arc de Triomphe, Paris.
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The Pavilions of the Nations, Exposition Universal, Paris.
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The Palace Lumineux, Exposition Universal, Paris.
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La Grande Roue, Paris.
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Eiffel Tower, Paris.
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Fonte: Spectacular postcards capture 1890s France in vibrant color