Lignières: Then and Now

From our last stop in front of the Hôtel de Commune, we walk to the right, turn onto the Rue des Eussinges which runs along its southwest face, and then proceed up the Rue de Fin de Forel. Turning around and looking back from a location just in front of the present-day post office, we see the Hôtel de Commune at the right and, to the left, with current address Rue des Eussinges 2 (RACN 010-6456-00066), a building which was, when this post card was published in 1939, a grocery and textile shop. The fountain in the foreground (RACN 010-6456-00217) bears the date 1894.

If you look at the rightmost corner of the Hôtel de Commune in the “then” picture, below the bell tower, you can see the enseigne with its sunny face shining over the street. At the time the “now” picture was taken, it was in an artist's workshop in the final stages of restoration, and will return to its place of honour in the heart of Lignières in the spring of 2007.

To the left of the main sign on the shop are three smaller signs which appear to be product posters. I can't make out the two to the right of the entrance, but the one just to the left of the “Epicerie Mercerie” sign advertises Cailler chocolates, which became a Nestlé product when the Peter, Cailler, Kohler chocolate company merged with their supplier of condensed milk in 1929. With a little enlargement and image enhancement you can recognise the distinctive “Cailler” and “Kohler” logos as they appeared in the contemporary posters shown to the right.

While the wires seen running to this building in the “then” picture have long since been buried, traces of the insulators to which they once attached remain today.