Étretat – La Villa Orphée
Description
- Media Type
- Image
- Item Type
- Postcards
- Description
- Postcard mailed to Rev. R.B. Layton in Kentville, Nova Scotia, from his 33-year-old sister Adriana Layton in March 1918 from Étretat, France, where she was a Canadian nursing sister recuperating from a "disability."
- Notes
- The Villa Orphée in Étretat was built in 1858 by musician Jacques Offenbach as a summer retreat. During World War I it was used by the British as a 20-bed convalescent home for nurses.
In 1833 gifted 14-year-old cellist Jacob Offenbach left his home in Cologne with his father and headed for Paris. Jacob (later Jacques) eventually became the musical director of the state theatre Comédie-Française. In 1855 he established his own small theatre where he introduced his light operetta "Orphée aux Enfers" (Orpheus in the Underworld). It opened in October 1858 as a good-natured spoof of the musician Orpheus and other Greek mythology characters. It was a financial success, enough to get Offenbach out of debt and build a summer home which he named "Villa Orphée" overlooking the sea on the Normandy coast at Étretat. He died in 1880 in Paris.
After World War I was declared in September 1914, the British established a hospital four months later in Étretat and took over the Villa Orphée for its supporting staff. In 1915 the villa housed members of the Voluntary Aid Detachment and in December 1916, it became a Convalescent Home for nursing staff.
- Inscriptions
- Front: Doesn’t this make you think of Bermuda?
Reverse: Dear old boy,
Yours rec’d. What do you think I am doing now? The Dalhousie Unit never saw France as we are doing it. Don’t I wish I had the pen of a ready writer! Yesterday we played tennis, and sat out on the veranda with glass roof. It is foggy today tho’. Hope to have a swing at Golf too while here. The Presbyterian Unit is here. How am I liking France? I am sorry I never came before! We have had a beautiful winter, and some nights I never lighted my fire at all in my hut. The Mess room was always too hot for me. I do not get fat, but I sleep & eat well. If I am spared to go home shall tell you all about my leisure and sight-seeing. Hope you received my registered parcel O.K.
Love to all from Adriana
- Date of Original
- March 1918
- Subject(s)
- Local identifier
- OILL0221
- Language of Item
- English
- Geographic Coverage
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Latitude: 49.7058321651738 Longitude: 0.207366943359375
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- Copyright Statement
- Public domain: Copyright has expired according to Canadian law. No restrictions on use.
- Contact
- Oakville Public LibraryEmail:oplreference@oakville.ca
Website:
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Oakville, ON L6J 2Z4
Tel: (905) 815-2042
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