I really don’t know why I started to collect them. Nor do I know why I am thinking about them now, except for the reality that we are in a lockdown situation just as their authors were 150 years ago.

Of course we don’t have the Prussian army surrounding us now, although the coronavirus is certainly limiting our movements. But in 1870, the people of Paris were totally unable to move out of the city because of the besieging military force; and to make matters worse, they could not exchange information with outsiders either.

Just to clarify for those in our community who may assume that Facebook, Twitter and Messenger have always been available, such forms of communication were not even in the realms of the imagination in those days! Anyway, the good citizens of Paris were frustrated that they could not send messages to their loved ones in France (or elsewhere for that matter), and so they had to contrive new ways to evade their enemies.

The first strategy was to insert their letters into zinc balls and float them down the Seine; but the Germans were quick to respond by installing nets across the river downstream and so catch all of the balls (plus letters) without much trouble. So the second strategy was implemented: to use pigeons, with the letters strapped to their feet. But the Germans were again up to the challenge of interception: their falcons were despatched, and the result was some very well fed birds.

So strategy three had to be devised. This time, the answer was the hot air balloon, actually several hundred of them over a period of some months. Up went the balloons from the city, each containing a good sack-full of letters (on special light-weight paper). And that’s the explanation for my collection.

Like many other youngsters, I had been attracted to the hobby of stamp collecting; but over the course of some years, I decided to specialize in certain countries and time-periods, and after a while focussed on early French stamps. The stamp collection was actually a joint activity with my father: he paid for the purchases and I tried to locate the best items! And the very best were the letters, envelopes and associated stamps that had survived the hot-air balloon journeys.

The stories behind some of them are amazing: one balloon for example, experienced a severe change of wind direction and ended up in Norway instead of the countryside just outside Paris which had been the intended destiny. Another balloon was last seen going out to sea somewhere off the French coast of Brittany.

And the contents of the letters were also fascinating: one of our letters was all about how the inhabitants of Paris had taken to eating the animals from the zoo, as they lacked any other source of protein; while another letter was an apology to a tailor who was owed money for a suit and who clearly could not be paid in the present circumstances!

So, as we contemplate the consequences of our own lockdown, just let’s remember that we no longer have to resort to zinc balls, pigeons or balloons for communicating with our friends and families.