This card may have fooled you at first, but it is a link to an interesting tale about the patron saint of eyes and eyesight. She is Saint Odile, and she was born some time about 662 A.D., presumably about the 13th or 14th of December, as those are her feast days. She was born in Allitona, part of Alsace in France, an area which today is known as Mont Sainte-Odile, after her.
Unusually for a saint, she was the daughter of a nobleman, Etichon, the Duke of Alsace, and she was born blind. Her father did not want her once this was realised so her mother took her away and gave her over to be raised by what are referred to as peasants. They were obviously much more kindly, and gave her a happy upbringing, despite the lack of money and any support from her family, and when she was twelve years something magical happened, a visiting Bishop turned up, and said he had been sent by an angel to find her. He baptised her, and she looked up and was able to see, perfectly, all at once. Now someone must have told this to her family and her younger brother arranged that she come back to them - but as he was her younger brother that puts him only eleven and I am not sure how much arranging he could have done. Anyway when she turned up her father flew into a rage and killed his son, who he suspected of bringing her back - on which Odile laid her hands on her brother and he sprang back to life. Now nothing more is heard of the brother, all we know is that Odile turned and fled, crossing the Rhine and ending up living in a cave, either in Germany or Switzerland, maybe both. The cavern was also magical, because her father chased her and the cliff face suddenly opened up to let her run in but closed to keep him out, then sent down a hail of rocks from above that pushed him down the mountain. Despite this, later in her life, when he was old and ailing, she returned and nursed him. Because of that he founded an Abbey for her to live in, and when he died he was buried there. She would go on to become the abbess, and also found a convent at Neidermunster, including a hospital with a reputation for curing eye injuries and diseases. That is long gone, but a well nearby is still believed to have the power to cure eyes. She died at the convent, in about 720, but there was another miracle shortly after, as when the nuns were praying over her body, she sat up, and told them how wonderful it was in heaven. Then she took a final communion with them and fell back, dead.
She was regarded as a saint not too long after, definitely by the ninth century, but she was only officially canonised in 1807, by Pope Pius VII. Her devotional image varies but she is usually carrying eyes, either on top of a book laid flat, or, rather alarmingly, in a glass cup.
This is quite a hard issue to sort out, for there are several sets that look alike. We have featured one of them before, as our Card of the Day for the 29th of July, 2022, but as that is from the second series today`s card, from the first series, albeit with the third back, currently becomes the home page.
Set one, then, was the earliest, issued in 1909, and it only shows views of Switzerland, titling them "La Suisse", and there is also a Swiss address, in Neuchatel, on the cards. That is a set of 240 cards.
Set two and three, issued in the late 1920s, show views of France, and titles them as "La France Pittoresque" (Picturesque France). In addition they have an address in Paris. The way to tell these two series apart is through the numbering system, because the first series, issued in 1928, is of three hundred cards, starting at card 1 - whilst the second series, issued in 1929, carries on, and starts at 301.
Its not quite that simple though, because there are also different backs, back number one being text only and advertising a "Grand Concours des Vues de France". This relates to a competition, which you can read more about with our Card of the Day for the 29th of July, 2022,
The second back is very similar except that the "Grand Concours" (the competition) is not there, this just says "Collection des Vues de France", so I imagine that this was issued either before the competition had started or when it had been won.
Then there is a third back, ours, which shows a big map of France, though it is but a outline view of the country infilled in blue, with only one town, Paris, shown. I am not sure if this predates the competition or not.