One Man's Trash...

Walking down the rue du Cherche-Midi this morning, I crossed paths with a young bearded guy carrying a huge stack of leatherbound antique books under his arm. There are a few old-book shops on the street, so I figured he'd gone on a shopping spree.

After doing a few errands I was on my way back home on the opposite sidewalk. Blocking half the path, in front of a shuttered store, was a motley collection of cardboard boxes overflowing with old posters, books, antique postcards, and maps, almost all pre-1950, some a century old.

I didn't hesitate for a moment, and started trash-picking with glee. This is my kind of rubbish. Most of the remaining books were without their bindings, but there were also old magazines, leather book bindings, poster tubes. Before long a party had assembled. A half-dozen or so of us were rummaging through the hip-deep depths of those wonders. The camaraderie was perfect: civilized and jovial. Everyone helping each other find what was of most interest, and cracking up over the stuff we didn't want. One man uncovered La Geographie du Monde by Jules Verne, unbound, with fabulous illustrations. The lady next to him fancied a poster-sized photograph of Jesus. A treasure trove. Clearly the young bearded guy I had seen earlier had hand-picked the best of the lot, but we sure weren't complaining. One man teetered off on his bike, balancing the books on the handlebars.

Back home, sorting through my trouvailles, I began reading one: "L'Almanach du Petit Echo de la Mode" from 1932. There certainly will be more forthcoming about this 128-page gem.

In the magazine I found these two rebuses. As a lifelong fan of all word games, I thought I'd tempt any French linguists to see if they can solve them. Now let me see if I can find page 128...