This is a bit of a red herring, or a red chilli anyway. For it brings us to almost the final leg of the Pan-American Highway, the stretch into Chile. and we have to say that chillies are not only not named after the country, but seldom eaten, as Chileans are not that keen on spicy foods.
As for the Pan-American Highway, it goes along what is known locally as Chile Route 5, at least until it almost reaches Santiago, where it bifurcates. After that, one side eventually becomes the Carretera Austral, or the Augusto Pinochet highway, depending on your politics, and remains unfinished, though the dream remains to take it further, right down into Magallanes, and almost to the Antarctic. The other side, which is technically the proper continuation, takes you beneath the Andes, in a long tunnel, and, at some point, right in the middle of the tunnel, you have changed country and are in Argentina.
The main problem with driving this part of the route is the weather, for the road, and definitely the tunnel, are often closed at short notice between the months of May and September. So if you fancy driving the route you have to bear that in mind. The reason for this is not immediately apparent if you are driving up from Argentina, but the entrance from Chile is far more difficult, and the only way to construct the road was to make it a long series of small curving roads that gradually descend into the mountains, and are extremely treacherous in snow and ice, to say nothing of the rather sharp, and often blind, bends. However the Argentine side is also subject to bad weather, and notably, as recent as September 2013, the roads and tunnel were closed for ten hours, due to a sudden fall of half a metre of snow. And this situation is made worse by the fact that this remains the only tunnel.
As far as our card, we just fancied something different from flags and geography. This is from a very well used set, with lots of other issuers, just a quick look online brought it up for
- C BERIOT Chicoree Belle Jardiniere
- Henri FACQ - coffee
- Chocolat GRONDARD
- L. FOURNERAULT Chocolat du Negrillon
- Chocolat IBLED
- Chocolat Cacao Francois MEUNIER - Paris
- Chocolat PAYRAUD
- Chocolat POULAIN
- THIERY et Sigrand, clothing, Lyon
- Chicoree WILLIOT
That meant that we were able to add more cards and over the weekend I will look at each of those individual names and see if I can add some more. But at the moment we know of :
- Le Cafe
- Le Canne a Sucre
- La Capre
- Le Gingember
- Le Laurier Sauce
- Le Mais
- La Menthe Poivree
- L`Olivier
- Le Piment
- Le Riz
- La Vanille
The one thing I don`t know is the title of the set. Maybe you do, and can tell us - along with the identities of any other cards or issuers.
As far as our issuer, Maison Grondard, they are rather a tangled web. Most sources say they were founded in 1853 with a shop located between Rue M. le Prince and Rue de l'Odéon. However there are a couple of sources which give the founding date as 1841. Now we could just discount that, except for one fact, the address, which is 17 Rue de l`Odeon.
Anyway what made their name was that they got a Royal Warrant, or the French equivalent of one, anyway, from Her Majesty, the Empress of France. This led to their expansion, and they relocated, opening two shops, one at 129 Boulevard Saint-Germain, and another at 53 Boulevard Malesherbes as well as the factory at 1, Rue de l`Odeon in Arcueil.
That factory proved too small, and moved to Grand-Montrouge, at 93-95 Route d'Orléans. Now the date of the opening of that factory is a bit sketchy, but we think it was about 1905. By this time it appears to have changed its name to Grondard et Fils, or Grondard and Sons.
They closed in 1922, and further research has proved that for some reason they went bankrupt. And it also appears that they had already sold half of that large factory, as the bankruptcy judgement quotes only number 95, not 93-95.