Excursions sur la Côte d’Azur – Les Gorges du Loup

A 34 page picture book of the Gorges du Loup (found between Vence and Grasse).

There’s no date on this book but I’m guessing it’s from the 1920s or 1930s. The train bridge over the Loup River which is seen in many of these photographs was destroyed during World War II, so this book definitely predates the war. About 24cm by 18cm in size it features 15 photographs of the areas in and around the Gorges du Loup. There’s a short introduction in both French and English and a small map of the area where the photographs are from.

This book is part of a larger series, published by T. Olive in Marseille, all with the title Excursions Sur la Côte d’Azur. This one is sub-titled “Album N°8.” I currently have two other volumes, “Album N° 4 – de Nice à St.-Raphaël” and “Album N° 2 – de Nice à Grasse et les Gorges du Loup.” All are pretty much the same except for the color of the front and back covers. This one is red, the other two I have are tan and green respectively. Interestingly enough, the other two have 18 photographs instead of 15. A credit on the front says, “Photographies du Cdent Laribe.”

The books are high quality, especially for the time. The covers feature embossed printing and glittery gold type. The photographs are printed on heavy cardstock paper. The title plates say, “Autochromes stereoscopiques de la Côte d’Azur.” I don’t know enough about photography to say but I’m going to assume this was a high quality form of photography at the time.

I have no idea how many books are in the series as there is no listing of the other ones anywhere in the books. On the back title page it seems to imply that there are two main collections: 1. Photographie de Paysages – Villas – Pares – Jardins – Intérieurs – Usines – Groups et Industrielle; and 2. Collections de Vues: du Tonkin, de la Chine, de la Crête, du Marie, de Nice et environs. I’ve done a Google search and there seems to be very little about these books online. I can’t find any information about the other volumes.

   Download a high quality PDF of this book (91mb) – large file, be patient
   Download an excellent quality PDF of this book (5mb)

[click on any image to see sample pages]