FranceJadis
History of the project
FranceJadis was not born in 2024. It is the outcome of forty years of collecting, digitizing and, today, restoring old postcards — with, in between, a whole life as a commercial website that few of today's visitors know about.
Timeline
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1984
MédiaSys is founded
A publisher of communication software (videotex) on the OS/2 platform: Editex, the MS videotex range, the PMTEL emulators, gateways…
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1995
“Images de la France d'Autrefois” goes online
The first public site for browsing the postcards, with Im.Media. Search through a clickable map of France, département by département.
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1997
A shift towards services and Java
MédiaSys refocuses its business on consulting and Java development, asserting its object-oriented expertise. The postcard site becomes a showcase for that expertise: Java, Linux/Apache/PHP, Tomcat servlets, online payment techniques.
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2001
Enhanced version: free search, ~80,000 postcards
Keyword search is added to search by département. The database already shows about 80,000 old postcards — but that total then includes mainland France, the overseas territories and many other countries (see “Paris et proche banlieue”, “Outre-mer”, “Pays du monde” in the left-hand column of the screenshot below). Why this figure has changed since is explained further down.
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~2002
Switch to paid access
After several years of free browsing, the site's success carries a growing cost in resources. Access becomes subject to a flat-rate payment — €1.68 per call to a premium voice number (Allopass) or €2 through a second micropayment channel — giving 24 hours of browsing and downloading. The postcards people like can also be ordered as paper reproductions (20×30 cm), with a printed order form, signed and sent by fax.
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Mid-2000s
The site ages technically
The display relies on a Java applet, a technology increasingly fragile in the browsers of the time. In January 2006, users report on the Geneanet forum a “fatal error” preventing them from seeing the postcard before paying — a problem confirmed by a Geneanet product manager himself. The site stays online, but MédiaSys's business has refocused on B2B consulting and project management support for institutional clients (Comédie-Française, Banque de France, the Ministry of Health, La Poste, Paris City Hall, several wine houses…) — the postcards were now just one project among others.
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Following years
Successive refocusing
The business moves towards the wine sector, then towards mobile development (iOS, Android, then Vapor services) — the same technical lineage that powers the FranceJadis server today.
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31 December 2020
The company closes for good
The “Images de la France d'Autrefois” site disappears with it. The postcard collection, however, stays with me.
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2024 → today
Rebirth: FranceJadis
Automatic identification of captions by image analysis, geolocation assisted by artificial intelligence and by Apple Look Around/Google Street View, restoration and colorization of the pictures: the collection is reborn as a completely redesigned app — free, with no ads and no tracking.
Why ~70,000 postcards today, and not 80,000?
The original MédiaSys database held about 80,000 postcards — but not only of mainland France. The site already distinguished “Paris et proche banlieue”, “Outre-mer” and “Pays du monde” (visible in the left-hand column of the home page screenshot below): part of this collection documented overseas territories and other countries.
FranceJadis now focuses on mainland France, for two reasons. First, a real technical challenge: precisely locating postcards scattered across a map of the whole world is a separate job, still to be done. Second, part of this overseas and international collection documents an era some of whose images may stir controversy today: it seemed better to set them aside for now, rather than include them without the necessary perspective.
On top of this came a clean-up of badly recorded entries in the original database — separate from the removal of the postcards outside mainland France. All in all, the current FranceJadis collection now holds about 70,000 postcards of mainland France: that is the figure to remember. The postcards set aside are not lost; their use is simply postponed.
What has changed
Yesterday
A website, a Java applet, a clickable map of France by département, flat-rate paid access (€1.68/24h), paper reproductions ordered by fax.
Today
A native iPhone/iPad/Mac app, an interactive map, direct comparison with today's France via Apple Look Around, free, with no ads and no tracking — funded by the donations of those who wish to give.
Archive album
“After loading the photos of the département and clicking on the town I'm interested in, I can't see the postcard I chose before going to the payment. Every time a window opens with ‘fatal error’!!”
— a user, Geneanet forum, January 2006 (translated from French)
Did you know this site back then?
A postcard brings back a memory, you used “Images de la France d'Autrefois” twenty years ago, you have an anecdote or a correction to add to this story? Write to me.